'What not to wear' vs the IT world

Every once in I while I wonder how much of a disconnect there is between the science, engineering, and technology world and that of the general population. Take Squirrely Nerd Gets Fashion Chemistry, an episode of the TV show What not to wear. Basically they take a female scientist, shame her for dressing horribly and tell her that her wardrobe will work against her future success.

Compare to the following excerpt of the blog post Women in IT: ‘If you want to be taken seriously, dress like a man’:

If you want to be taken seriously in IT, you need to dress like a man,” he told me. ... He told me that standing out was a distraction and customers would judge me less based on my looks if I tone down my appearance. We talked about keeping my hair pulled back and wearing more neutral attire like the rest of the guys on the team. I took his advice—traded my heels and Ann Taylor outfits for Gap khakis, button-down shirts and comfy Clarks. ... I figured it didn’t hurt to try. I wish I could tell you his advice was all wrong, but I can’t. Very soon after I stopped wearing makeup and started dressing more like man, I noticed a change in people’s interactions with me. I got fewer comments about what a surprise it was to see a woman in my role, and people started to ask me advice on IT topics. I established myself in this new career and it felt good.

So in other words, the nerdy clothing style that the show What Not To Wear tried to eliminate in favour of a "more professional" wardrobe to promote future success seems to actually have had the reverse effect in the IT environment described above. In most IT environments and most science labs that I've been around dressing too "professionally" (regardless of gender) tends to get translated as "I'm in marketing" in pretty much any situation other than perhaps a conference presentation or an interview with the media.

(For those who'd instead advance the argument that dressing as she did would leave her doomed to permanent spinsterhood - destined to become a crazy-cat-lady - it seems worth noting that at the time this episode of the What Not To Wear show was put on the air the woman in question was actually about to get married and her fiance seemed pretty indifferent about it).