Wall Street's Dress Code

From Brooks Brother’s and Armani pin stripes to those who found True Religion, it’s hard to tell  whether Wall Street's dress code is changing again. Along the trail of PW’s last 2007 roadshow—this one exclusively with institutional investors—business casual still rules. 

While observing 23 portfolio managers and buy-side analysts from firms as large as $800 billion under management in Boston (guess which one) and as small as $50 million:  five, equal to 21.7%, were dressed in denim, including the only female; 11, or 47.8%, donned slacks and open collar shirts; and seven, or 30.5 %, were of the old school vintage, wearing ties.  Of the presenting executives, 100% wore suits and ties.

Other roadshow observations ... 

Less than two hours from bustling Manhattan, money managers abound.  In a day, we visited firms in Greenville, DE, just outside of Wilmington, plus West Conshohocken, Malvern, Berwyn and Radnor, PA, all within a stone’s throw of Philadelphia.

And what to eat? Picks from the trip: Oceanairre in Philadelphia; Luca in the North End of Boston; Town in the always hip Chambers Hotel on West 56th Street in Manhattan. Try the lamb.

-- Roger Pondel, President, rpondel@pondel.com