In most of the places I have worked in the last 18 years (mostly marketing departments) – women who wear makeup are the exception rather than the rule – and most of the departments where I have worked have been 90% women.

I can’t speak for the younger contingent at your meeting but personally.

I’d rather be recognized for my professional, creative & intellectual achievements having heard so much as a child that was where I had to compete to be seen as an equal once I grew up and got out to the “real world.”

Having spent most of my teenage years in hand-me-downs from my male cousins (which was fine with me – jeans and long sleeve button downs were like a uniform) – and being criticized and mocked for it, I just pushed thinking about clothing or appearance back more and more.

I’m at the point where I think that I look silly if I try to do anything other than wear functional, neutral clothing.

I went through a phase in my late 20s where I experimented with clothing but got tired of dry cleaning bills and not finding things that fit properly. I even started wearing belts around 27 or 28 (never even having owned belts before) and amassed a collection of almost 3 dozen pairs of shoes!

Most of my clothing is black and grey. It always goes together. I don’t really own anything with patterns and my colors are limited to about 3 (a paris green, a turquoise-y blue, and dark purple).

Thinking of clothing as a means of self expression is purely academic for me – that’s to say, it’s interesting to observe on other people but I don’t have much to say via my clothing.

Albert Einstein & Steve Jobs both wore “uniforms” – then again, they were geniuses and I’m not.

Sometimes I wish I could just chuck all my clothing and have all the same shirt/pant/shorts so I would never have to think that much about what I wear. I think more about people who think a lot about what to wear – a friend came to spend the night and brought with her a GIANT bag on the bus – with 3 add’l pairs of shoes because she wasn’t sure what she wanted to wear the next morning – and clothing that would be like 6 different outfits, cosmetics, jewelry and accessories. (I swear – I did NOT laugh at her!!).

Also – there’s a sort of group conformist mentality in a lot of corporate situations. When I worked at a Big Bank, about half the women on my floor dressed right out of LL Bean – khakis, loafers and long sleeve button down women’s shirts. No other floor was like that – just our floor. At Big Agency, we had a media group on the other half of the floor – everyone on that side had a very distinct style – both men and women – and you could always from the back when you went into the kitchen if it was someone from the media group.

So – maybe your observation of the younger group of women who were all in jeans and black is a result of one or more of these things:
- group conformity in a tight knit corporate team
- intentionally choosing neutrality to reduce distraction or free up time for other things
- lack of confidence or knowledge of how to improve their appearance with different clothing choices

Sorry for rambling – like I said, I’ve always been fascinated by your vocation and always wished we had the opportunity to discuss it since our positions are so radically different (ie, I’m a total slob and you’re not!)