The Guide to Corporate America : John T. Molloy Still Dressing for Success

His hair has whitened, but little else has changed in nearly a decade since John T. Molloy first told working women how to find success in a gray flannel suit.

“The fact is, it’s more true than ever,” he says.

“One of the problems women have if they get to the top is they fluff out. They wear conservative clothing for 10 promotions, then deny that they were tough as nails to get there and start dressing like Madame Bovary.”

Molloy continues to maintain that the only acceptable office look for women working in corporate America--whether in the presidential suite or the ranks of middle management--is the female equivalent of the man’s business suit: a straight skirt and matching jacket with traditional lapels in a navy or gray woven wool-like fabric, either solid color or with pin stripes, and a contrasting blouse, preferably in white.

The Authority Look

Chanel-like suits with soft cardigan jackets are verboten. So are any other clothes that suggest creativity, money, sexuality or individuality, including dresses, slacks, knits, skirts with slits and bright colors.

“Can you imagine a man wearing an orange suit?” Molloy asks, breaking into a grin.

The only exception to the suit rule, he says, are dresses worn with contrasting suit jackets.

And if it all sounds boring . . . it’s meant to.

“Boring but powerful,” Molloy says. “Half of the men who run America put on whatever’s there in the morning. It’s a uniform.”

In 1976, a time when women were entering the business world in droves, Molloy, a New York-based business consultant, made a name for himself by using standard marketing techniques (“tested in every state in the union”) to determine proper business attire in corporate America. He compiled his findings in two best-selling books, “Dress for Success,” followed two years later by “The Woman’s Dress for Success Book.” (In a third book, “Live for Success,” he offered advice beyond dress, including social poise.)

Since then, Molloy continues to retest the effectiveness of the suit and other elements of corporate image for private clients. And every year, he says, the women’s suit-- “my suit,” as he sometimes refers to it in conversation--comes out the victor.

Molloy, a garrulous 48-year-old who wears what he preaches (gray pin stripes, white shirt, red tie), has become a fixture on the college lecture circuit, campus-hopping on Regent Air to extol the virtues of the Right Accessories in the Real World.

Last week, Molloy tossed off his jacket and necktie and addressed a lunchtime crowd at Cal Poly Pomona. He said it was his 20th college campus in five weeks.

“I won’t draw as many people as Gerald Ford, but on some campuses I outdraw Kissinger,” he boasts.

“There’s a definite reason--I talk to them about entering a foreign country and the country is Corporate America.”

Molloy has only amended his original thesis in small ways. For instance, after testing women’s bow ties, he added them to the uniform. “They’re very effective. Historically, people in authority have worn something of contrast near the jugular.”

He is currently testing mink coats.

Molloy scoffs at the dozens of dress-for-success books that have come out since his, many of which advocate a more individual clothing expression. “I call them ‘guess-for-success books,’ ” he says. “You can’t argue with my statistics.

Sending a Message

“It’s just like the fashion industry’s message--you’ve come so far, you deserve a slit in the skirt. The cutesy-poo look sold by the fashion industry is very effective if you want your clothes to say: ‘I’m a nice girl; I’m pretty; I’m proper; I’m too dumb to take care of myself.’ A $2,000 Chanel suit says, ‘My husband probably has a lot of money.’ It doesn’t say, ‘I’m in charge; I’m able.’

“The fact is most businesswomen--lawyers, accountants, editors, bankers, women who deal with important products--accept the fact that on important business occasions when they want to be authoritative and effective, the thing to wear is a conservative skirted suit in navy or gray.”

It all boils down to common sense, anyway, he says. People in business have a preconceived image of a person in power.

“All I ever prove is that Pavlov is right.”