Capitol Hill reporters are a quirky lot.

Some obviously think carefully about how they dress. Others take an “I can dress as I please” lackadaisical approach.

As one of my more fashion-conscious colleagues put it, “Some reporters in the Speaker’s Lobby look like they’re homeless.”

Rules for reporter dressing have grown stringent in recent years, with the press galleries ordering male reporters to wear jackets and ties in the Speaker’s Lobby and women being reminded, essentially, to wear more, to cover their midriffs and cleavage.

Some reporters dress well as a matter of respect for lawmakers. Others show up looking as if they’ve put on what they just bought at a garage sale. It’s not so much scruffy as mismatched and odd.

And then there is genuinely scruffy — a different look. His premise is conventional — buttoned-down light-blue oxford and khakis. But he rolls up the sleeves and his tie hangs loosely. Sometimes his pants are wrinkled. The ensemble is, in fact, a different convention, that of the hardworking reporter who is too busy to put on a show for anybody.

A variation of the type comes in a corduroy blazer and Dockers-type trouser. It is a step up from the basic scruff but would fit a preparatory middle school better than the halls of Congress.

Some longtime reporters make a more concerted effort, adopting the dark suits and shiny ties favored by congressmen themselves. But they can hardly be considered fashion icons and are easily distinguished from a congressman’s perfectly suited aide.

“This is not a place to be a rebel,” remarks David Lightman of the Hartford Courant.

Last Tuesday in the Senate he was wearing a dark blazer and a tie with the brand name Addiction. He calls it his computer tie because it’s full of screens and gadgets. Hardly New York Fashion Week neckwear, but he seems to fit in just fine.

“I wouldn’t think of coming in here wearing a dirty flannel shirt and throwing a tie on top of it,” he says. “It’s just not right.”

Maybe not, but there is something daring about reporters who go against the grain and wear what they please to speak to someone as distinguished as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) — be it jeans and an untucked shirt or the getups worn by some photographers dressed in khaki vests as though for war.

A female staffer who has seen the media in the Capitol for more than a decade says, “Reporters have turned into a better-dressed, well-heeled group compared to the old scribes. They didn’t care about it before.”

That may be true, but some get-ups are intolerable, such as the tan pants and blue-and-white-striped shirt with a clashing orange-and-blue-striped tie worn by a reporter in the Senate last week. All those stripes could give a lawmaker a headache.

Lightman says he doesn’t believe there is a lot one can do with a man’s wardrobe, but he has learned something about fashion in his decades as a reporter: “You always show up in a suit and tie. It’s the uniform; it shows respect. Obviously I’m not going to show up in a lime-green blazer.”

Thank God for that.