Dress options

Seemingly a faux pas for business dress: tight, short skirts, cleavage-baring tops and ragged jeans. But in today's casual workplace, appropriate attire may not be so apparent.

Casually dressed workers may be risking career success for the privilege of being comfortable, according to two surveys.

How employees dress at work directly affects their prospects for a promotion, according to a survey of workers and human-resource professionals by Yahoo HotJobs and Banana Republic.

At the same time, 61 percent of workers admit they either don't know or don't care about their company dress code.

Another survey, by TheLadders.com, a site that features $100,000-plus salary jobs, looked at executives' attitudes about dress codes. It found that while employees who dress casually are perceived to be more creative and more fun, they run the risk of being taken less seriously.

"Employers have lost focus on what business is," said Boca Raton, Fla., business consultant Luis Mago "They want to give employees perks, to work at home, to feel relaxed. The purpose of business is to make money. We're not there to be relaxed."

Can workers be fashionable, comfortable and businesslike?

"People need to understand business casual. You can't wear what you wear to the gym," said Tom Musbach, managing editor for Yahoo HotJobs.

Companies often have dress codes but don't communicate them well, he said. Pay attention to what your boss wears; that's a good guideline, Musbach said.

Andre West, chairman of design at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, advises workers to "dress for the environment you're in." Workers "have to look at themselves in the mirror and see how they fit in that group. 'Is my skirt the right length? Is my tie the right width?' "

Most of all, make sure clothes fit well, West said. "Too tight or too loose, that is a problem."

Another pet peeve of his: no cellphones clipped to a man's waist, unless it's the necessary BlackBerry.

Bobbi Engelke, a paralegal at the Boca Raton law office of Adorno & Yoss, considers herself a stylish dresser but tones down her look for work.

"I don't want to give someone the wrong impression," said Engelke, who usually dons a pantsuit or other professional attire.

But even on "casual day," Engelke said, "you can dress casually and still be stylish and professional."

Still, some workers go to extremes in casual dress and employers sometimes take action. Engelke recalls with a laugh the former employer who sent an e-mail to women banning thong underwear in the office

"Now they're going to tell me what kind of underwear I can wear?" she said.

Mago, a former military man, created his own dress code. Even in the heat of the summer, he wears suits.

It's best, he says, to always be ready for an unexpected meeting with the CEO.

"Let's assume you're in a business meeting with a client, and all of a sudden the president of the company walks in and you're wearing shorts. You're not going to get that business," Mago said.