http://www.amazon.com/Picture-It-Photo-Premium-9/dp/B000096L73

A few hours spent browsing the ask andy American Trad Forum would be very instructional for the good professor’s wife:
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=41

Worst unisex academic fashion statement: the mountainous backpack apparently containing the professor’s entire scholarly library and always worn on the back, not over the shoulder, so the wearer looks like a Himalyan hod-carrier. Of the hundreds of female scholars in attendance, I counted about five who who had made an effort to look attractive and professional: nice shoes, hair not cut with the help of a bowl, a blouse and skirt that went together, a crisp raincoat instead of a Michelin Tire Man stuffed jacket. And the table manners in our communal dining hall! After a while, I couldn’t look.

Every professor should be required to read this article[http://www.colorado.edu/Sociology/gimenez/corner/look.txt] by Regina Barreca (I think it originally appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education):

“Our men look like inmates only recently released from federal penitentiaries, forced to wear clothing thirty years out of style. They wear sweaters knit for them by the girlfriends they had during the Carter administration. These items, never flattering, now fit them around the middle like tea cozies. They have been known to wear clogs. They wear, for pity’s sake, berets.

“Grown-ups in other professions have been known to buy one or two new garments every season. They purchase shoes even when their other shoes are still viable. Not all their attire is made from fabrics so earth friendly that they feel like woven loofahs. Other responsible professionals wear snug clothing yet manage to avoid looking like segmented insects. They wear bright colors yet do not look like clowns. They are not trying to call attention to themselves, but instead to fit in while being well turned out….

“I’m not talking about Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. I am talking about people over thirty who work in public relations, development, software sales, graphic design, trade book publishing, film and television, upscale retail, and those writing reelance articles on ‘The Joy of Fiber’ for Self magazine.”

There is no reason why academics can’t dress like adults, too. You don’t need a lot of money or even a lot of fashion sense (which I sure don’t have) to put on a decently tailored sweater and skirt or sweater and slacks along with some handsome, professional-looking footwear (try the super-markdowns at Zappo’s, Shoes.com, etc.) before you get up in front of your class. Humanities professors these days moan like wounded gophers about the ever-diminishing number of undergrads who want to major in their fields. Maybe if the professors made an effort to present their fields as the sort that draw attractive, personable people whom others would like to know, they might have better luck creating a next generation of scholars.

Yes, here in Scandinavia, the hippie professor is alive and well. He graduated in 1968 and has had what you call tenure since then. And he is so convinced the “look” from his youth still works.