你想让我说你想听的话吗？好吧。

I worked at a place once that required ties. Well, we never had customers in our offices, EVER. Additionally I am IT so I was always in a server room behind racks or under a desk. I refused to wear a tie.

Luckily my manager was super cool. He'd initially came on as a consultant and he and I worked together alot before he went full time with us. At least once a week when I was leaving his office he's say "You're supposed to be wearing a tie." I'd just say, "I know". He'd smile and say "Well, I can say I told you."

That went on for maybe 2 years until I quit for a better gig.

Corpo had an important point, in that you only get one chance to make your first impression, and there are customers who listen with their eyes.

Now, he showed the wrong video: he should have had video of a disheveled guy in a tee, board shorts, and flip-flops who knew his stuff and could present it coherently. Then he should have followed that up with the same guy cleaned up and dressed for IBM giving the same presentation.

Then the question to the class is, which presentation would make the best first impression on the client?

The problem was that Corpo didn't know what his point was: he thought the point was, "Look the part." The point is, "Look the part so you can be sure that the client hears that you are the part."

It's also said (with some justification) that you should dress for the job you want, rather than the job you have.

Several times in my professional career - I have been 'called out' for what I wear to work...

I am strictly a jeans and graphic or tie-dye tee shirt (nothing obscene etc.) guy - I am a system admin - I don't really interact with people - I put my nose down and solve complex problems etc...

And each time I get called out for not wearing khakis and a polo - and am told that I'm not professional...

I reply with something along these lines - "Explain to me how wearing a costume - Makes one a professional? - Because for the work that I do well - That costume just unnecessarily annoys me, and impacts my ability to do the work I do, and have been doing for the past few decades..."

I have been written up, and even fired (and twice rehired, with the understanding that no one decides what I wear but me) for me taking the hill I will happily die on.
I've even volunteered to leave: "You want me to go home?"

Here is one of my favorite interactions I had on this topic:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/pni1ma/office_appropriate_attire/

I have been auditor in a police zone long time ago (odd circumstances).

I was in jeans and T-shirt, and entered with mailwomen in any and all police stations, the two Forensic Laboratories (one was litterally underground), the cars workshop, the shooting range, the computer crime unit, the children unit (you don't want to know), the 3 Justice hall buildings (surreal monty pythons movie scenes), Internal Affairs dpt, the Division Capitaine's secretariat...

The first time someone asked what the hell I was doing here was a precinct officer in front of her deskroom on the second floor of the station she commanded. It was my third week. she though i was a perpetrator going AWOL, then was afraid I was an I.A. officer. I felicitated her for her attentiveness to avoid her a meltdown.

I took photographies all over the main Precinct. The only person who complained was civil logistic servants who "didn't want my pics of them to go on Facebook". Go figure.

But the one day i came in suit for a training, each and every policemen in uniform that I came across shook my hand - 200+ of them, damnit ! - as I appear to be someone of importance. the next day I was invisible again.

I only got busted when the division captain asked the legal dpt the exact same question i asked them the day before. but at this time I already had found the bottleneck i was looking for.