Presumably this is only true when you notice that they're posturing. Someone adept at it will do so in a way that conveys the message they're aiming for on a more subtle level.

A force to be reckoned with might be just one notch above the average of the environment. Not so overdressed as to be distracting, but polished enough to create a "don't dismiss me" unconscious message.

I hold my own opinion here at least a little bit suspect. I certainly wouldn't pass it off as truth or even good advice... but my tendency is to think that by the time you're considering dress, you've already lost the battle you're fighting.

Once you've gotten past doing whatever it is that you deserve respect for in the first place, playing these kinds of games for it establishes weakness and enters into a social negotiation of sorts that I haven't seen won from this position very often.

The spoils here tend go to the person who's earned them, and doesn't give a fuck about whether any particular other person thinks that's true.

I'm going to go out on a limb and state that there's a bit of a double standard with how clothes are interpreted with men and women.

I'm only barely wrapping my head around men's fashions, I don't pretend to understand what it's like for women.

  What exactly does a force to be reckoned with wear?

Ascend the corporate hierarchy; how does your boss's boss's boss (or their opposite-gendered counterpart in another department) dress?

I'd rather be naked and unemployed than even have a boss's boss's boss.

Yes, I suspected when I wrote that it would seem unwieldy to someone from a startup. It comes about naturally enough when you have multiple thousands of employees though.