_aeron

I find that considering any part of one's appearance to be acquiescing or reacting to company policy is ultimately still acknowledging it, and PG touches on the reason why that alone should be distressing: "dressing up is inevitably a substitute for good ideas".

Focus on building a wardrobe that can modulate and interplay. A nice (and here I mean non-stuffy, my personal preference is a rich blue slim-cut) suit can lose the trousers in favour of jeans for the weekend, or lose the jacket in favour of a sweater for the workplace of a programmer. You won't look especially trendy, or 'like a programmer', but nor will you look tasteless or in any way aberrated; you will look competent. Expecting anything else is probably quite vain.