A commenter recently posted this on James Robertson's blog:
bigz, if you come into my office wearing torn jeans and a t-shirt, I will be offended. You are not showing respect for me or yourself. That is simply the way the world works. And yes I teach my child respect. I learned it from my parents.
My instinctual reaction to this is, "If you're so uptight about clothes, I don't necessarily need to do any business with you." The person who wrote this is essentially a traditionalist - a person who perpetuates certain patterns of behavior "just because", not because there's necessarily any good reason for it. Being a traditionalist is fine as long as you don't force it on others. Forcing it upon others, though, is what the words "cultural imperialism" are about.

If I come into your office in jeans and a T-shirt, I'm not disrespecting you, because wearing such an outfit doesn't mean disrespect in my world. It's an outfit I like to wear and which I find myself comfortable in.

Likewise, although I myself would never wear a suit, I respect your decision to wear it and might admire how well it fits you.

However, if you think that my wearing jeans means disrespect, then you are forcing your value system on me, and that is the true disrespect. I would consider that as an insult, and for this reason I wouldn't want to do business with you.