Hired consultants and business partners are different. Consultants work for you. Business partners are theoretically equals, and your sartorial standards are

Hired consultants and business partners are different. Consultants work for you. Business partners are theoretically equals, and your sartorial standards are no more important than theirs. In a case like AT&T and Apple, where the balance of power isn't clearly tilted one way or the other, I would say they're equals practically as well as theoretically. It's insulting for one to dictate standards of professionalism to the other.