Dress for success.

It is impossible to wear clothes without transmitting social signals. Every costume tells a story, often a very subtle one, about its wearer. A couple of years ago, I visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was surprised to see that most physicians still wore suits, while here in Chapel Hill where I work, I am only one of a handful to do so.* I wear a suit because I feel that it makes for easy choices in the morning, looks respectful and elegant, and after a certain age (mine) it flatters the aging body. The " business suit " (sometimes also called a " lounge suit ") appeared in the late 19th century, and typically all of its pieces (2 or 3) are made of the same cloth. Suits tend to compensate for physical variations by having no indication of a waistline and by adding padding to the shoulders; minor variations such as lapel width go in and out of style regularly. Business suits are a type of uniform, and today uniforms are worn mainly by 3 professions: the armed forces, commercial aviation, and medical staff. Smaller groups of individuals such as sports professionals and hygiene workers and even some students in private schools still wear uniforms. Commonly seen in medicine are 2 types of uniforms: white coats (or laboratory coats) and scrubs. Most lab coats are knee length and have long sleeves to offer the most protection. Additionally, they are usually made of cotton because of its high capacity to absorb liquids. Professionals for whom sleeves prove uncomfortable or prone to contamination, such as microbiologists and pharmacists, prefer short-sleeve smocks. In a survey of nearly 300 doctors, only 1 in 8 wore a white coat, despite the fact that over 50% thought they should. 1 Specialists who are the least likely to wear white coats include psychiatrists and pediatricians, while those more likely to do so are surgeons and gynecologists. Older physicians are also more likely to wear them than younger ones. Scrubs were designed for surgical personnel but are now worn by nearly anyone who works in health care (they are also mandated in some prisons). Similar to lab coats, scrubs were initially white, but with the advent of modern operating room illumination, that color resulted in eye strain. During the 1950s and 1960s, most hospitals adopted green scrubs in an attempt to lessen this strain. …