Looking the Part: Negotiating Work Clothes, Gender and Expertise in Retail

This article explores work clothes as a site for negotiations of gender in relation to expertise in retail. Pointing to the importance of studying dress for the understanding of contemporary labor processes, the purpose of the article is to understand cultural and gendered meanings of work clothes by analyzing how workers handle expectations of their appearances. Based on qualitative methods and interviews with workers in fashion stores, beauty stores, home improvement stores, and home electronics stores, three different ways are identified in which workers compensate for the loss of perceived expertise as a result of not belonging to the expected gender. When female workers were the norm, as in fashion stores, male workers had no trouble fitting in, but still compensated by identifying with management. In home improvement stores, female workers compensated for their lack of masculinity by wearing men’s clothing, thereby enacting sameness. In home electronics stores, female workers desired more feminine clothing, thereby compensating for lack of masculinity by enacting difference. These different tactics illustrate the key roles in negotiations around expertise that work clothes play and that the meanings and effects of gendered garments vary contextually.