A T-shirt or hoodie, some ratty old jeans and a pair of cross-trainers ... discarding conventional dress codes is not just the preserve of technology executives. Some fashion execs, like Michael Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch, relish the notoriety that comes from dressing like beach bums at the office.

They can get away with it, but can you?

Wearing any kind of voluntary dress code, like a suit to a board meeting or shorts to a backyard barbecue, has long signalled a desire to earn social acceptance and "belonging" to the group. It may not actually elevate your social and professional status to do this but it will certainly prevent you being ridiculed. And if you are low-ranking on the corporate totem pole you may not want to risk an uncomfortable dressing down about your clothing choices from some drone in the human resources department.

Same goes for situations outside work. Many people wouldn't be caught dead at the opera in anything but a suit or evening dress.

Yet lab and field research by three academics from Harvard Business School, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, has found that intentional nonconformance with dress codes can elevate the perpetrator's status and perception by others of his competence. They call this the "Red sneakers effect".

In one of a series of experiments conducted by the researchers, the sales staff at luxury boutiques in Milan, Italy, were found to be more likely to accord higher status to individuals entering the shop in gym clothes than if they were dressed to the nines and wearing a Rolex. One of the shop assistants was even quoted as saying: "Wealthy people sometimes dress very badly to demonstrate superiority" and "If you dare enter these boutiques so underdressed, you are definitely going to buy something."

Of course, the nonconforming behaviour needs to be perceived as a choice made by the nonconformist. (Recall Julia Roberts in the character of a hooker shopping luxury LA boutiques in the film Pretty Woman. She was shunned by staff because her nonconforming appearance was not a matter of choice.)

In another experiment conducted by the researchers, Harvard students were found to accord higher professional status and competence to unshaven professors wearing T-shirts than to shaven professors wearing ties.

The Harvard researchers link nonconforming dress code behaviour to "conspicuous consumption", where people display their status by being able to afford luxury goods that others cannot. In the same way, people who don't conform to conventions of dress code and etiquette are showing that they can afford to behave in a way that ordinary people cannot.

There is ample additional evidence that nonconformity can make you stand out from the crowd in a positive way. At business conferences around the world, casually dressed speakers are becoming increasingly common. This may come over in some quarters as sloppiness but mostly it is intentional branding.

And independent consultants, who are almost invariably former corporates themselves, are showing up at client meetings more and more frequently in casual dress. The reasoning is simple: it signals to the client that the person at other side of the table is marketing substance rather than style. "I don't need to wow you with the way I dress, only with the product I'm selling you."

For those entering the workforce, the extent to which your employer seeks genuine diversity, independent thinking and creativity across his team is becoming a measure of his quality. Do you want to work for someone who demands that everyone on the team look the same? This is particularly the case for businesses serving Gen-Y customers, who are renowned for distrusting symbols of the status quo, such as pinstripe suits.

This goes against the grain of image consultancies that preach "proper etiquette". For example, Etiquette Outreach, a New York consultancy, advises professional women to avoid, among other things, bright colours, tight tank tops, athletic shoes and tight pants. Under no circumstances should they wear earrings to business meetings.

It is also anathema to retailers peddling traditional business attire, whose suit sales dropped in the years of the internet boom during the late 1990s, picked up again when the boom collapsed in the early 2000s, and are now wobbling once more as trends move towards the greater individuality and freedom of expression favoured by millennials.

Clearly, busting the dress code has risks if you are a business owner with a lot of strait-laced customers. But the Harvard Business School research shows that professional and personal branding often involves showing your customers that you think differently – and your dress code can be the first outward sign.