While CEOs are often known to wear expensive attire to project the correct power image, one international “CEO” decided not to dress like his predecessors but to continue on with his own simple personal style. In the process, he won the 2013 Best Dressed Man of the Year award from Esquire magazine—and sent a message about his management philosophy.
When this “CEO” came to power, the dress code was opulent—it included a lot of satin garments with adornments and embroidered shoes. But that’s OK, since popes have dressed in this style for centuries.
When Pope Francis ascended to the papacy in 2013, he decided to stick with his wardrobe of plain black leather shoes and simple white vestments.
According to the article announcing the award and explaining this unconventional choice, Esquire said that it was how the Pope’s simplification of his dress code was a “visible” signal of how he approached his job. “Pope Francis understands that menswear is meant to express the character of the man wearing the clothes,” says Mary Lisa Gavenas, author of The Fairchild Encyclopedia of Menswear.”
Mark-Evan Blackman, assistant professor of menswear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, added Pope Francis’s “mode of dressing really does reflect the mindset behind it.”
So, when it comes to CEOs, clothes may not make the man, but they do reflect the man.
The maxim that the tone starts at the top applies to the Vatican as much as any workplace or organization.