What is your organisation's dress code really saying - and does it matter in today's world?

It started with a simple workplace disagreement: one team member preferred not to wear a tie; his manager did. What followed was a conversation that, on the surface, was about neckwear. But the more I pulled on that thread, the more it became clear it was about something much deeper.

Dress code conversations are almost never really about clothing.

What Clothes Are Actually Communicating

When I sat in a coffee shop on St Georges Terrace in Perth — the main commercial artery in the city — and watched the pedestrian traffic, I was conducting an informal experiment. The variety was striking. In the space of an hour, I saw everything from immaculately pressed suits and ties to smart casual, to business casual that tested the limits of the word “business.”

And here’s what fascinated me: the people in suits weren’t necessarily the most senior. The people in open collars weren’t necessarily the most junior. Dress standards had become a much more complex signal than simply “how important are you?”

What people wear to work communicates identity, attitude, and cultural alignment. It says: “I understand this context” — or, when it misses the mark, it says the opposite. That’s why dress code conversations generate such genuine friction. They’re not really about the clothing. They’re about belonging, authority, and what an organisation believes about itself.

The Generational Dimension

This is where it gets interesting. Different generations carry fundamentally different assumptions about what professional dress means.

Older generations — particularly those shaped by the formal workplaces of the 1960s through to the 1990s — often associate professional dress with professional seriousness. A tie isn’t decoration; it’s a signal of respect. Dressing formally says: I take this work, this organisation, and you seriously.

Younger professionals frequently see this differently. For many Millennials and Gen Z workers, authenticity and self-expression are professional values, not personal indulgences. A dress code that feels arbitrary or constraining can read as a sign of an organisation that doesn’t trust its people.

Neither view is wrong. They’re just coming from different places.

When Dress Codes Create Culture Problems

Where dress codes become genuinely problematic is when they’re used as a proxy for other issues. A manager who insists on ties but can’t explain why is often enforcing habit, not a considered position. An employee who refuses to adapt their dress for client-facing situations may be prioritising self-expression over professional context.

The businesses I’ve seen handle this well have one thing in common: they’re explicit about the reasoning. Not “we wear ties because that’s how it’s done,” but “when we’re meeting clients, we dress in a way that signals professionalism to them” — or, equally, “our culture is deliberately casual because we want to signal that ideas matter more than hierarchy.”

The purpose matters. When people understand why a standard exists, they’re far more likely to embrace it — or to have a productive conversation about whether it still fits the organisation’s identity.

Finding the Balance

If you’re navigating a dress code conversation in your own organisation, here’s what I’d suggest. Start with purpose. What are you trying to communicate as a business? Who are your clients, and what signals do they respond to? What does your organisation’s culture actually look like at its best?

From there, set standards that reflect those answers — and be willing to revisit them as your context changes. The organisations that get this right aren’t the ones with the strictest dress codes or the most relaxed. They’re the ones who’ve thought carefully about what they’re communicating and why.

Your dress code is, in its own quiet way, part of your brand. Make sure it’s saying what you intend it to say.