I was pondering this morning, having experienced variously:
Being forced to wear ugly, low-quality, ill-fitting branded workwear in a non-customer-facing role – a couple of which were manual trades where the workwear wasn't rugged enough. I had my own trade-appropriate clothing which I was not permitted to wear.
Being forced to wear suit & tie every day in a non-customer-facing office role on minimum wage meaning I could only afford super-cheap versions of these. In a couple of those jobs dress-down Fridays were treated as rewards for performance (there were no other performance rewards). In my last such role the management could and did what they wanted while we had to keep our jackets and ties on even in the middle of Summer.
None of these jobs even had the thin excuse that it was a corporate policy. Most were small businesses where the dress code was written and enforced by people I saw every day, and who mostly didn't apply it to themselves.