An attractor or a distractor?

There has been a small buzz around the issue of dress codes in tournaments, brought on by the European Women's Championship in Turkey. The sanctioning body, the European Chess Union, has a dress code for its events. It is in use for the current Womens' Championship, and will also be enforced at the European Men's Championship next month. While there are plenty of places discussing it I'll just link to The New York Times coverage of it. While there are probably good reasons for having a dress code, and not having one either (I'm on the side of not enforcing one btw), most of the complaints seemed to be aimed at the requirement for players to "button-up". At most only the top two buttons can be undone, which seems to concern some male commentators, who feel such a restriction will drive people away from chess. Now I probably should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are saying that chess players like to dress casual, but I can't help thinking there is some other rational behind their angst. However I'll wait to see what is said about the issue during the Men's championship before I pass final judgement.