Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
WHO TOLD THEM TO BUY SHORT? Maybe they got their ideas about workplace attire from watching too much CSI and not enough Mary Tyler Moore Show reruns.
To get a job with Donald Trump, the eight women who started off in The Apprentice went tight, short and flirtatious, following the example set by Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth (she's the one displaying both cleavage and thigh in a publicity photo). Months after taping ended, Trump's stoic assistant Carolyn Kepcher says she still is "shocked" by what the ladies wore.
"They lost sight of the fact that this was a job interview," Kepcher told the New York Times last week. "If Donald Trump was a woman, would they be wearing those kind of clothes? These are eight very intelligent women with heads on their shoulders. Their sexuality only got them so far."
Only one woman remains in the running, Amy Henry. Three of the original eight men have made it this far.
NOT ALL TV IS REALITY TV: Television has not always offered the best examples of how women should dress for work in the real world (although some professionals, such as prostitutes, strippers and doctors, seem to get reasonably accurate wardrobes). The season's top-rated show, CSI, would have us believe that female crime scene investigators ply their trade in tight tops with plunging necklines and tight hip-hugging pants.
WE BLAME "ALLY McBEAL': Lawyers, among TV's most dominant female professionals, were usually shown wearing midcalf-length skirts and shirts with feminized ties until Ally McBeal debuted in 1997. With the show's female professionals wearing cheerleader-length skirts and tops that plunged cleavage into the boardroom, casual Fridays became the least of the working woman's clothing worries.
Ally made such a splash, no one noticed that the female lawyers on Law & Order were mostly toeing the line (they do like plunging necklines). But Law & Order provided its own distraction when the SVU franchise hit the air with Mariska Hargitay's detective character demonstrating a penchant for tight shirts.
WHAT'S A WOMAN TO DO? If you listen to Carolyn Kepcher, one TV role model might be Elisabeth Rohm, the assistant DA on Law and Order. Twinset and pearls!
- Sharon Fink can be reached at 727 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com