Arguments over dress codes wear a little thin

TEAMING up a pair of brown shoes with a business suit might not be a sign of a dapper dresser but in the City of London such a grave crime against fashion can spell professional death and the end of a young gun’s dreams of a career in banking.

Not only that but, according to the UK government watchdog on social mobility, the unspoken dress code in areas like finance and banking is just one of a host of reasons why youngsters from the wrong side of the tracks are seldom recruited.

While there is no doubt that accomplished youngsters are passed over for well-connected mediocrities, the truth is that dress code should be the least of their worries. Compared to accents or table manners that may be unconscious manifestations of class, dress codes are easily deciphered.

The pretence that dress codes have anything to do with snobbery serves nothing so much as to open the doors of public and professional life to armies of misguided attention seekers who believe that wearing grubby jeans and tatty mini-skirts express their individuality and rebel spirit.

We can see the results of this trend in the Senate where Lynn Ruane sports all-over body tattoos of which she is proud because apparently they tell the story of her life. In the Dáil, Mick Wallace heads an army of independent TDs who seem as committed to a different uniform of jeans and T-shirts as their left wing ideals.

Drawing the line at business suits and brown shoes seems draconian. But if it prevents the rise of shabby sartorial standards in public life, then I’m all for it.