Culture of Business Dress: An Examination of Women’s Dress Codes Over the Decades

March 1-31, 2023

The Culture of Business Dress will feature women’s office clothing from the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection with context and commentary provided by Johnson Graduate School of Management faculty member Elizabeth McClean and MBA Candidate and Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow Sarah Preston. Highlights include a red Armani power suit, an iconic Diane Von Furstenberg designed wrap dress, and recently donated purple Italian silk two-piece Darabin designed ensemble. Donor Lisa Colby-Jones describes her Darabin dress and jacket:

“Incredibly, this was a dress that I bought in the 1980s, as part of ‘dressing for success.’  I look at it now, and it truly stuns me that I would wear something so amazing to work – but in the 1980s, there were few senior women in finance (I had a 34-year career at Morgan Stanley), and along with the shoulder pads, you had to look like you were already successful, even if you were still climbing the ranks and success was highly uncertain”  

Clothing selection by Elizabeth McClean, Associate Professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management and Catherine Kueffer Blumenkamp, Lecturer in Human Centered Design and Manager of the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection. Context and commentary by Elizabeth McClean and Sarah Preston, Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Design and facilitation by Marcus Reed, Access & Administrative Services Manager at the Business, Engineering, & Entrepreneurship Libraries.

Opening Event: Friday, March 3rd from 11 am to noon (coinciding with the Management Library open house) at Management Library 101 Sage Hall.
Light refreshments and tea will be served.