Women in power shun staid gray suits of yore
WASHINGTON — Elise Hoffmann lived through an era when a gray suit was regulation business attire for women. • In 1981, she was a summer associate on Wall Street when “I got pulled aside by a midlevel man because I wasn’t wearing pantyhose.” • Duly chastised, she toed the line. • But 33 years later, Hoffman — now a principal at Marshfield Associates, which manages $2 billion in assets — sports “status wrinkles” (the unavoidable crinkles in pure linen after only a few minutes of wearing). She also wears black leather skirts with lace hosiery, as well as J. Mendel sheaths and dresses by Marni — an Italian brand that shuns straight-line tailoring.
“We are idiosyncratic as investors; we’re financially creative,” said Hoffmann, 55. “I see how I dress as supplemental to that. I want my personality to shine through as well as my good judgment.”
In the span of the working lives of women who now sit at the top of their professions, fashion has become equipped to speak to their individuality, mood and personality — as well as career gravitas. Women’s power dressing has given way to personal style.
Most obviously, women don’t feel compelled to dress like men.
“The younger professional women in development — which is male-dominated — they dress more feminine in skirts, dresses and high heels,” said Leslie Ludwig, a partner in the Maryland real-estate firm JBG Cos.
“They’re making a statement in a good way. . . . They’re more glamorous.”
Popular culture is one reason for the change, especially television. “The more successful the show, each season the women get sexier,” said Ludwig, chuckling. “CSI has women out there digging up dead bodies in 4-inch heels!”
If there is any go-to uniform for a day when the stakes are especially high, it is the simple aerodynamic dress.
“I might grab a Cline sheath, something very minimal,” Hoffmann said.
“The sheath dress, it has a subtle authority.”
Women give a nod of thanks to first lady Michelle Obama, who has shunned the suits worn by her predecessors in favor of sheath dresses and cardigans.
“She dresses for the person that she is: mother, first lady, CEO of the East Wing,” said Vanessa Reed, a trial lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice and a mother of three.
CNN correspondent Dana Bash, 42, recalls being wed to the traditional blazer when she started appearing on-air in 2002.
“It was a big deal to me,” she said.
Now, her uniform of choice is a dress, tights and boots.
“One dress I love — for me, it’s a little edgy — it’s sleeveless. It’s black, and it’s leather. I’ve worn it on TV.”
On one of the most important evenings of TV news — on Election Day 2012 — she wore a simple, long-sleeve purple dress by Nanette Lepore. Bash wore no distinctive jewelry but chose “black heels — 5- or 6-inch heels,” because she was going to be standing next to relatively tall men in dark suits and wanted to be at their eye level and “because I love shoes.”
“One of the benefits of being a woman is I don’t have to put on a black suit,” Bash said.
“I could do it, but why do it if you don’t have to?”