Akademik

(DRES kuh.rekt.nuss)

n.

The style of dress that is considered to be appropriate for women who wish to climb the corporate ladder. The style depends on the corporate cultue, but is usually of the dark-suit-and-white-blouse variety.

The rapid entry of the majority of women into the work world over the last 20 years, particularly the increase of women in professional and managerial positions, has changed not only women's shopping priorities, but the control — financial and stylistic — women exert over the way we look. We have entered the era of dress correctness, in which women's clothes are purchased less to attract male sexual attention and more to match rising professional ambitions.

— Amanda Spake, "Dressing for Power," The Washington Post, January 5, 1992