My Journey from Finance to Fashion

I found my old Lehman Brothers business card this morning, it’s 10 years old now.  Working as an investment banking analyst at Lehman Brothers was my first job after college. 

Many people ask where or how then did I get my interest in fashion.  Well, my interest in fashion came the first day I started working at Lehman Brothers.  I remember walking inside the global headquarters and saying to myself wow, everyone dresses the same – it was my first taste of corporate culture.  Many people also looked boring.  I felt like I needed to do something different – something fun, stylish, and different, for me, fitting in was not fitting for me.  At the time Lehman Brothers had the most conservative dress code on Wall Street. I noticed some people broke this trend by wearing bright, pop-colored cuff links, or exposing the Hermès or Ferragamo logo on their designer tie, but this seemed weak, and not edgy enough for me.

So, like a good investment banker, I did my diligence.  I researched all aspects
of men’s formal dress – it was the first time I ever strategically thought about dressing, and discovered that as an alternative to wearing a belt, I could wear suspenders.  The only other person at Lehman Brothers’ headquarters (over 5,000+ employees) to wear suspenders was the 60+ year old Vice Chairman, a very senior Wall Street veteran, who needed them to keep his pants on. The more I thought about it, the more I said to myself I’m going to wear suspenders too.  If I was going to do it right, I had to also do it with a little inspiration from Gordon Gekko. 

I took a big risk, you never not want to fit into a corporate culture, especially when your career growth is on the line. I was also relatively new to the firm and it might not have been in my place to make such a bold statement.  At the same time, I felt that wearing something it was the right thing to do for myself.  Also, I had a back-up plan, if I ever got in trouble and called into HR because people might question my ability to wear suspenders, I would educate them about how suspenders are technically part of the formal dress code, and it’s not my fault everyone else isn’t taking advantage of suspenders like I am.  After I made the decision, I then spent a few more months waiting to wear suspenders to celebrate the first day of my second year on the job.

The offices of all the senior bankers are laid out along the outside perimeter of each floor (the building is now headquarters of Barclays on 49th street and 7th avenue), and the insides of each floor are cubicles where all the junior bankers worked.  In order to move around the each floor you would have to pass along the perimeter where all the senior bankers offices were.  I remember the first week I wore suspenders, I got called into every single senior banker’s office as I walked around the building. 

Bankers are constantly on the phone talking to clients and working on securing multi-million and multi-billion dollar deals, for many of them it was the first time they really ever noticed me.  Every senior banker whose office I would walk past would call me into their office; half of them said “you look aggressive”, and other half said “you look awesome”.   I said to myself wow, I look aggressive and awesome, and fashion is powerful.  I wore one thing, and it generated so much attention – I could only imagine the collective brainpower, energy, and cost of hundreds of bankers all spending time thinking about what I was wearing.

I also said to myself fashion is untapped, as a business and finance graduate at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business Honors Program, and investment banker at Lehman Brothers, no one ever provided even five minutes of education about dress code, fashion advice, textiles, and fit, not one formal education on how to dress properly.  I then thought about all those bankers trying to secure multi-million and multi-billion dollar deals, and all the time they spent doing analysis and fact checking their research to secure those deals, meanwhile no one was there to check what I believe is the single the most important thing to making a good impression and winning new business, having a good sense of style.

To take this a step further, what if companies employed Chief Fashion Officers to champion and motivate and educate their employees on how to always look their best.  Just like a Chief Executive Office runs the operations and motivates the workforce, a Chief Financial Officer runs the numbers and motivates investors, a Chief Fashion Officer runs the corporate look and motivates everyone to look their best. 

The ROI could be huge.  In finance you’re always looking for investing in untapped opportunities, in fashion it’s always there.

UPDATE! Thank you everyone! You inspired me to buy the domain: https://chieffashionofficer.com