How to Dress for Success

If Your Look Is... Sloppy Genius

Rajkumar: If you’re a financial planner and you look like you don’t care, clients will think, She’s going to be sloppy with my money.

Griffin: Men can pull off the eccentric-genius look, but I haven’t seen a woman do it successfully. I have a theory that it’s one of the last gender boundaries.

Linda Koch Lorimer, vice president of Yale University and a member of the board of directors for the publisher McGraw-Hill: There is no dress code for successful women professors: You’ll see a woman in casual chinos who is a nationally regarded scientist and another with an Hermès scarf who is a leading humanist. I do know a couple of women, including myself, who when appointed college or university president were given a few tips to improve their attire and presentation.