In 1975 John T. Molloy published Dress for Success, a bestseller that told men what to wear at work. In 1972 Time magazine had reported that he had become “America’s first wardrobe engineer.” The researcher Barry Popik credits the book with spreading the saying “dress for the job you want.”
Molloy based his advice on his own tests. In one, an actor posing as a trainee asked secretaries in a New York office to get information from their files. In a greenish-blue suit and a “chintzy blue polyester tie,” he got 12 of 50 to do it. In an “expensive blue suit” and a “silk polka-dot tie,” he got 42 of 50.