Geography not necessarily gauge for well-dressed man

Q. I’m moving from Pennsylvania to a job in Arkansas with a good deal of travel to Texas, and I’m wondering about changes in clothing other than temperature related. Is there a difference between the way men dress in the South and Southwest from what you generally talk about?

I can’t help but think you’re describing New York and Chicago, or at least more New England styles.

A. Don’t be fooled. The Northeast has more than its share of men who don’t know how to dress.

Certainly, differences exist in various parts of the country. But Northeasterners may unrealistically equate wearing a lot of polyester and too-light colors with dress in the South, and men in the South and West may think all Northerners dress like fashion plates. Both are wrong.

This power of personal style was brought home to me one evening in Indianapolis. I was working with several managers of the J I Case Co. to prepare for a meeting I was addressing the next day. It was late, and after we’d finished, we all went down to the hotel bar for a nightcap. When the waitress brought our bill, she never asked who was paying; she just put it down in front of the right man, the ranking officer. How did she know? His looks said, “I’m in charge.” You may not always want to get the bill, but it is nice to be recognized as the one who does.

Rather than between various regions of the country, actual differences in dress are more apparent between small towns and larger metropolitan areas. Big-city dressing reflects a greater degree of formality and sophistication. Well-dressed men at the best club in Dallas or Atlanta don’t wear spurs or chaps. They dress much the same as men bidding on Wall Street or lunching in San Francisco’s finest dining rooms. When these men leave the city for a meeting in a rural area, they tailor their looks to their surroundings, simplify what they wear — more blazers, sports jackets and sweaters; fewer suits and no pinstripes.

Still, in some parts of the country, men in sales (even in a big city) would look foolishly out of place dressed in a suit. Others may be expected to wear a suit every day. Keep in mind, underdressing can be insulting. “Dressing up” a bit shows respect for the customer. This idea seems to be a major point made in the charming new Robert De Niro movie, The Intern.

During an interview I had with the well-dressed president of a large farm equipment manufacturing company, his answer to whether there are regional differences in men’s dress was, “Oh, sure. In a town of 100,000, I have gotten in the habit of wearing sportcoats. It’s a combination of the size of the city, the South and the heat in the summer. But when I go to Atlanta or Chicago, I wear a suit. Overdressing tells you a lot. Chances are a good line of blather goes with it. If someone appears in Albany, Georgia, too flashily dressed, well …”

It pays to look around, be observant. In every industry, the rules are different. In some fields, such as banking and accounting, coming to work in casual clothes is as bad as wearing shorts or an earring. On the other hand, in academia or manufacturing, wearing a suit could be overdressing. A blazer, sports jacket, even shirtsleeves (no jacket) might make a lot more sense.

Don’t be the one person at work who dresses too differently. Dress the way your peers dress; better yet, dress the way those one step up the ladder from you dress. Always wise advice.

The season of the year also has an effect. Everywhere, people dress more formally, in darker colors and more elegant clothes, in fall and winter than in the hot days of summer.

To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a well-dressed man is a well-dressed man wherever he goes, and is recognized as such the world over.