Theme Parks Play Dress-Up, Shutdown

After a nearly yearlong experiment in loosening its vaunted dress code, Disneyland has decided to leave the casual attire to the tourists.

Dockers and sweaters are out, suits and ties are in, and the spit-polished, church usher “Disney Look” is back for the park’s administrative employees.

Casual Fridays and a relaxed dress code may be the rage in other corners of corporate America. But “business casual” turned out to be a poor fit in the tradition-bound Magic Kingdom, according to Frankie Walters, image consultant for the Disneyland Resort.

“Guests have come to expect a professional look from our employees,” Walters said. “We tested the business-casual look but decided it wasn’t in our best interests to continue it.”

Few companies boast a dress code so detailed that it dictates rules on everything from undergarments (employees must wear them) and deodorant (ditto) to toupees (natural-looking rugs only, please).

Thus, it was a notable footnote in the fashion world last year when Disneyland rolled out a whole new look called “business casual” for its office workers.

For the first time since the park opened in 1955, male office employees working behind the scenes at Disneyland were allowed to chuck their ties, throw on a sweater and some cotton twill pants and sport a bit of jewelry beyond a watch or a wedding band.

Now it’s back to basics for gents at Disneyland, where coats, ties, long-sleeve shirts, dress slacks and suits once again are de rigueur. Necklaces, collarless shirts, sweaters, Dockers-style pants and casual shoes are verboten.

Female employees also are restricted from wearing twill pants, casual shoes and T-shirts. But they can keep the dressy culottes and pantsuits as long as they’re part of a coordinated outfit.

Additionally, there has been no return to the sartorial Dark Ages of clear nail polish, flesh-colored pantyhose and small post earrings that gripped the Magic Kingdom for decades.

Disneyland’s female office workers remain free to wear drop earrings, as long as they don’t dangle more than an inch and a half below the earlobe. They also can choose a few more shades of polish, hosiery and lipstick--but anything bright, brassy or patterned remains off-limits.

Walters said the “business casual” dress standards at the Team Disney Anaheim Building never deteriorated so far that you couldn’t distinguish the workers from the tourists. But she acknowledged that some employees put more emphasis on “casual” than they did “business.”

“Everyone brings a different interpretation to the office,” Walters said. “The return to the classic dress code takes the guesswork out of it.”

Dianna Pfaff-Martin, a wardrobe consultant with California Image Advisors, says Disneyland’s return to a more stringent dress code speaks volumes about the corporate culture.

“Disney has always set the standard in whatever it does,” she said. “When they loosened their dress code they no longer stood out. . . . They once again are setting a higher standard than their competitors.”

The Disney dress code has become part and parcel of the company’s mystique.

In 1989, Walt Disney Attractions, which formerly operated the Queen Mary in Long Beach, fired three employees for violating the company’s ban on facial hair. Although founder Walt Disney boasted a mustache, the restrictions continue to this day.

Likewise, the company once forbade a waitress from wearing earrings with a union logo.