At least, that’s what an unidentified Glamour editor told young attorneys (likely summer associates) at Cleary, Gottlieb in New York, according to Jezebel:
Well, a recent slide show by an unidentified Glamour editor on the “Dos and Don’ts of Corporate Fashion” at a New York law firm shed some light on the topic, according to this month’s American Lawyer magazine. [link unavailable, but see also Legal Week]
First slide up: an African American woman sporting an Afro. A real no-no, announced the ‘Glamour’ editor to the 40 or so lawyers in the room. As for dreadlocks: How truly dreadful! The style maven said it was ’shocking’ that some people still think it ‘appropriate’ to wear those hairstyles at the office. ‘No offense,’ she sniffed, but those ‘political’ hairstyles really have to go.
Um, hey, ‘no offense’ taken — my hair has been totally apolitical ever since I learned about the dangers of “Republican highlights” — but next time you tell a group of professionals they’ll need to submit to extensive regular treatments if they expect to survive in the corporate world, maybe try a crowd that isn’t so familiar with, like, the law?
Not to mention, Jesus, how behind the times are you? Even white-shoe firms have been okay with neat dreadlocks and neat Afros for quite some time now. Braids, which were once so! shocking! are old-hat. I mean, would you call this woman unprofessional-looking or political-looking?
Claudia Gordon, the first deaf African-American female attorney in the U.S.
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