Career Clothing (#1)

Photo Credit: Kurt Wilberding/The Wall Street Journal

Well, it looks like my second post on this subject proceeded this one. Sorry about that!

I am enjoying the series featured on the Wall Street Journal blog about what people wear at their jobs. The most recent one features photos and descriptions of the people who work at The American Museum of Natural history in New York. Go here to read it and see the pictures.

It's so interesting to learn why people wear certain clothing and how they feel about their clothes and careers. Some of the quotes I liked the most are:

 Laurel Kendall "When I started work, I probably dressed more conservatively than I do now," she said. "I didn't want to take risks. And then I realized that people seemed to enjoy the way I dressed when I edged over into the exotic, and life is too short to dress in a boring way."

On having an "anthropological license" to dress: "I think that because I'm an anthropologist, I can be a little bit more outrageous than if I were, say, an administrator. People expect me to be a little exotic, or they at least tolerate it. I came of age in the late '60s, early '70s, and at that moment in time, suddenly there was Indian embroidery out there, there were Afghan fur coats, Mexican smocks, Indian mirror work. It was a way of shaking off a conservative way of being that had dominated my childhood. And I think for a lot of us who came of age then, how we dressed also reflected a worldview that was suddenly open to possibility."

Monique Scott "I like to reflect my geeky side but also with a hint of cultural inspiration," said Ms. Scott. "So I wouldn't wear those houndstooth pants if I didn't have the Indian bracelets or the necklace from the Harlem Arts Alliance to complement them."

She said she typically wears black every day, along with flats. "You can cover enormous distances traveling from one end of the museum to another, so I always tend to wear pretty comfortable shoes."

Ms. Scott started working at the museum as an intern in 1994. "I elevated myself from jeans to houndstooth, I suppose," she said. "I've tried to mature along with the position."