Do Clothes Make The Agent?

When I was a teenager, most of my wardrobe was purple. I wore a purple fringed suede vest, ruffled satin shirts, clogs, and bell bottom blue jeans I bought at The Different Drummer, the first hippie/head shop on the Upper East Side.  My goals in this wardrobe rebellion were murky (as most adolescent thinking is murky): I wanted to break out of the sartorial straitjacket in which I had spent the first 15 years of my life, and I wanted to conform to the rapidly altering standards of what was cool. I both wanted to stand out and to belong.

Now most of my wardrobe is suits. I learned a critical lesson when I entered the real estate business – in a sales job, your clothes convey a complex and significant message. In a way, my goal is still to stand out and to belong. But the choices resonate very differently. Now I want to look well-tailored rather than outrageous. As agents, our clothes should both seem appropriate and aspirational; I hope, from a first meeting with either clients or recruits, to telegraph a specific message about my, and Warburg Realty’s, standards and beliefs. And while some modifications may be fine depending on the part of town or demographic of the client or customer, the basic message stays remarkably similar. The suit doesn’t need to be grey or navy (although I have both), the shirt doesn’t have to be white or blue. But we need to look like we take our jobs and our clients seriously, and serious clothing achieves that.

I accept that for showings in Harlem, or Tribeca, an open shirt may look fine for men, and in the heat of July and August I will often wear my suit with a polo shirt. But no matter how our clients may be dressing, we always need to look professional. No jeans, no sneakers, nothing too high on the thigh or low on the chest. Even if half the showings on the Upper East Side seem to include buyers dressed in LuluLemon workout clothes, that cannot mitigate our standard as agents. We need to embody the lifestyle we are selling, and exemplify the standards of our firm.

The technology revolution has swept like a wave through many business conventions. 28-year-old billionaire CEOs dress in jeans and t-shirts, hip workplaces contain foosball and air hockey tables, seating is ergonomic, and workstation computers are on extendable arms so their users can stand at their desks rather than sitting. But we are still in a service business, and that dictates different standards. We don’t need to look like bankers, but we need to dress such that whomever we encounter during our workday will immediately understand that we are on duty. Professionalism in our industry has a uniform – flexible, but with clear parameters. If we want to be taken seriously, we need to wear it.