Men's fashion--time to stop!

[Perd Hapley]

The church where my parents attend has a second service on Sunday called "Contemporary Service". Which translates to mostly younger people in jeans and t-shirts, etc.  When I was growing up if I had suggested to my parents that I wear jeans and a Nascar t-shirt to church, I would have had extreme difficulty sitting in the pew comfortably.

I wear my jeans and t-shirt to the holiness, primitive-Wesleyan service, with the 300-year old hymns and the anti-dancing sermon.  For one, I can't afford to buy a suit.  More importantly, I don't see the point of wearing a multi-layered European style of clothing in the American climate (St. Louis).  Even in the winter, it makes no sense to wear all that folderol in a heated car and a heated church building.  And then there is the simple fact that jeans, carpenter pants and BDU trousers are simply superior to dress slacks.  Why?  Stuff stays in my pockets.  Oh, and I insist on wearing well-made, well-maintained, all-leather logger boots, because they are superior footwear.  I'm afraid they just look funny with a suit.

But I do try not to wear shirts with commercial logos, and I am looking for ways to dress up without being all dolled up.

[Guest]

Nah, I'm actually a pretty conservative dresser. But honestly, I could care less what others choose to drape over their skin. Maybe it comes from living in an area where Carhartt duck is an acceptable fabric for any occasion.

[Guest]

Its actually kinda depressing to look at older pictures and how well people dressed in general.

I saw an old photo taken at a HOCKEY GAME of all places from the 1950s IIRC, every single man there was in a tie and coat, and the woman all had hats and dresses. Today people wear cothes to formal occassions that my grandfather wouldnt have worn to paint his house.

[Guest]

Ha, I usually draw the line at logos, too.

I'm not a billboard.

[Paddy]

Ha, I usually draw the line at logos, too.

I'm not a billboard.

I couldn't agree more with that.

People who dress like slobs everywhere they go not only show contempt for everyone else,  they demonstrate a low self image.  It's like their inner angst is screaming out 'look at me, I'm a sleaze'.  Most of them are also easily offended and walking around with a chip on their shoulder. I think it comes directly from the 'victimization' phenomenon.  

Have you also noticed that many of these people groom themselves in such a way as to emphasize their worst traits?  Fat women wearing flowered pants.  Guys with their eyes really close together have little short mustaches like Hitler.  Or guys with big noses who wear glasses have mustaches and the whole thing looks like a Groucho Marx caricature.

[TarpleyG]

and goatees

And just exactly what is wrong with a nicely trimmed goatee???  Or beard or mustache for that matter.  Sorry you are offended by my facial hair.

Greg

[Antibubba]

Barbara,

   I think that what they are talking about is akin to the "broken windows" idea of law enforcement; i.e. that when we ignore the small lapses of clothing etiquette and standards, then we should not  be surprised when those rules are openly ignored or ridiculed.

[El Tejon]

Tarp, like I said earlier, facial hair that is trimmed and groomed looks fine in court (depends on the face of course), but those rat nests and the ones that look like filth smeared on the face (aka the monkey butt) are just horrific, especially in a public place where one should make an impression.

[Stickjockey]

I declined to hire a surprisingly large number of people over the years who declined to dress up for job interviews.

I've gotten jobs based solely on the fact that I did dress up for the interview.

[Art Eatman]

Being reasonably neat and reasonably clean, to me, is just a basic.  I'm not talking about my day in the garage, working on my car.  I'm just talking about being out in public and informal.  

I see no reason for looking grungy.  To me, it just shows a lack of pride in oneself.  And,  looking at a lot of these creatures, it generally appears there's little for which they could be proud.  A lot of them look like a few months in a Jap prison camp would be salubrious.

This ignores the Terlingua game of "dressing down" for the tourists.  It lets them feel superior, and they can walk back to their cars and mumble about the "quaint people" in that desert community.

(I goofed, one day.  I was just off the backhoe, and joined the porch crowd up at Ghost Town for a beer or three.  Some touron* wandered past, feeling quite superior until he caught a glimpse of my Rolex.  Blew the whole deal, right there. D: )

Art

*Touron:  Cross between a tourist and a moron.

[DrAmazon]

Women's fashion is even worse.  I refuse to purchase clothes until this stupid frilly ill-fitting shirt and low-riding, wide leg pants phase is over.

Honey, you have WAY too much of it, so please stop flaunting it.  I have no desire to see your tattoo on the small of your back or your over-stressed thong either.

Oh I second that!  I've been very into shopping the thrift stores since this phase began.  And don't get me started on the flp flops and pointy toed Barbie shoes.

I just hope the next fashion phase isn't worse...

[Guest]

These are offered purely as evidence that I do own clothing that would probably meet your definition of acceptable:

Me addressing a crowd of gunnies-
http://www.firearmsalliance.org/DSCF0009.jpg
http://www.firearmsalliance.org/Me.JPG


Me with State Senator Valde Garcia-
http://www.firearmsalliance.org/BandV.jpg

Howsomeever:

You are just as likely to see me at the hardware store wearing a raggedly old uniform shirt with a name tag that says Twyla and a pair of tar-stained denim shorts, with my hair in some kind of ratty old knot on the top of my head. You'll be lucky if I'm wearing shoes. I will under no circumstances be wearing make up during this. If you saw me, you may think I'm a crazy homeless woman or something.

If I need to pop into the grocery store or the vet while I'm out, I'm doing it, and like I said, ignoring anyone who thinks I'm a bum.

So, yea..if you're saying people should wear something respectable into court or church, I'm not going to argue with you, but when it gets beyond that to "people shouldn't leave the house looking like that" I disagree. Who decides? Can I be annoyed by ugly ties or stupid little fashionable glasses?

The coolest thing I ever saw was a very large black woman wearing a bikini at a water park once..at first, I was taken aback, but the more I thought about it, she looked great..she was very confident and very strong looking and there was no reason on earth some little chickie was more qualified to be comfortable on a hundred degree day than she was, so more power to her.

[BryanP]

Random thoughts:

Being a sysadmin I have a bit more leeway in "professional" dress.  I tend towards a mix of long and short sleeved button down shirts in various solid colors.  Slacks or jeans as appropriate (no jeans in my office).  I have a bad habit of ending up with a black belt and brown shoes (or vice versa) because I'm not paying attention at O'God It's Early O'Clock.   But then I spend 90% of my day in a locked room with a bunch of servers and two other people who really couldn't care less.  I've been told that at least one Director level person refers to the three of us as "The Nerd Herd" consisting of The Girl, The Long Haired Freak, and The Big Fat Geek.  I'm not a girl and I don't have a ponytail going 2/3 down my back like Ed does.  You figure it out.

No hats, but then hats just don't look right on me.   Same for jewelry.  Wedding ring and maybe a watch.

I have a beard and mustache but I trim at least once a week if not twice and shape with a razor.

If you see me at the range or doing yardwork I'm probably wearing one of those button down shirts that has become a bit too worn/stained/ratty for the office.

I can't imagine showing up for court in anything less than decently groomed "business casual" attire.  That would be bare minimum.

I won't force someone else to dress "appropriately."  But if you think people don't judge you based on those appearances you're nuts.  The question is are you in a place that you care what others think of you?

Biggest dress faux-pas I've ever seen that made me laugh my big fat butt off:  When I used to work for Pepsi Cola I saw a guy show up for an interview wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a big Coca Cola logo.  

[crt360]

Suits look nice, they're also totally insane in warm weather, or cold weather when everything indoors is being heated.

I agree.  I wear them all the time.  They are hot, uncomfortable, restrictive, delicate, expensive, limited-function, dry clean only get-ups from the old world.  When the heat index is 112 and the real temp in my car that's been sitting in the lot is 135 it makes little sense to go out in several layers of clothing topped off by full body coverage of dark wool and tie your shirt collar shut with a strip of silk.
 
There are a few benefits to wearing a suit:
If your head is not too ugly, the suit will make you look at least decent, no matter what else is wrong with you.
It was obviously designed for concealment (mainly of the bodies of out-of-shape middle-aged guys) and is easy to hide most pistols in.
It's easy to sneak into places where others are all wearing suits - nobody can tell who doesn't belong.
If you have a particularly fly suit, some people will be impressed.

I spend so much time "dressed up" I don't care if people see me on Saturday afternoon in shorts, t-shirt, baseball cap and running shoes.  I don't have any problem with others wearing the same.  I don't really find any clothing offensive in appearance, but there is a certain combination of:  (1) fat, exposed middle sections that flank the waistband (2) tattoos that have changed shape and now look like bad scars (3) stink, and (4) a loudmouthed, get outta my way attitude that I've begun to encounter a lot more often than I'd like.

[BryanP]

[3) stink,

Now there's something I can get behind.  Yesterday I was on an elevator when a gaggle of women and a young teenager stepped on.  I'm not sure which of them it was but one of them definitely doesn't believe in basic bodily hygiene.  I can close my eyes.  My nose ... feh.

[Waitone]

El T, couldn't the judge deal with the problem?  Six months for the felony and another six months for looking like a slob.

[Guest]

Here there's a set of rules..I'd have to look at exactly what they are. No shorts, shirts must have sleeves, no hats, something like that. Beyond that, you can wear what you want to, but there are minimum standards that the judge can impose and I'm ok with that.

[grampster]

Barbara,
    A.  First let me apologize for my upcoming remark.  B.  I can't help myself as you provided the golden opportunity.  C.  So, it's your fault, really, it is...

In the first pic, you are not the one standing to the far right behind the table, are you?
The one in jeans?  With the blond hair and khaki shirt and the ahem, cough, sort of round abdominal area?  With hands in pockets?

(grampster ducks, weaves to the right and lunges forward out of the room, away from the flatscreen, just in case......

[Guest]

LOL.

Nope, I'm the chick at the front of the room.

That was my friend Bryan who was most likely shaking his head at something I was saying, which like most of my friends, is something he spends a lot of time doing.

[Guest]

I'm just surprised no one told me to get my droopy eye and gapped teeth fixed!

Imagine running around like that when cosmetic surgery would take care of either problem. The nerve!


Barbara the Perpetual Smartass.

[lee n. field]

What's more today IN COURT I see tank tops with with cut off shorts and flip flops (men in flip flops) and stocking caps!

When you go to court, let your Mom dress you.

[griz]

I'm with Barbara on this one. There are times and places that require a certain quality of dress. But most of the time the individual style is up to the...well, individual. Who's to stay what is the "right" way of dressing for being out in public? If you are on vacation, which is the proper way to dress for a visit to (for exampe) Mt Rushmore? Should you wear jeans and a cut off vest over a black T shirt, or a pastel golf shirt and shorts? Does it depend on wether you drove an RV or a HD to get there?

Church is kind of a pet peeve of mine. I will not try to speak for God (I can hear him laughing already), but I suspect that he would rather see some body there every Sunday rather than show up twice a year dressed to kill.

Oh well, I'm going to take my shoes off and not worry about it.

[El Tejon]

griz, can you at least polish your bare feet before you go to court?  Please, pretty please.

[Strings]

I'm very open to mode of dress most of the time. I'll agree that certain circumstances (court, job interviews) require a more formal attire. Outside of those, I'll dress how I feel. Unless I'm on the bike or at work, that's usually some form of kilt. Even many formal occassions (then it's tartan, instead of Utilikilt). That being said...

 At the very least, bathe yourself and wash your clothes occassionally! I've run into WAY too many people who need the "horse brush and fire hose" treatment. Got no trouble with dressing comfortably, but can we NOT be complete slobs?

[Azrael256]

I will provide room and board for anybody who wants to see the most terrifying example of this.  We have a dance school here.  The girls walk around in tights and these tank-top looking things all day.  It's fine for a dance class, but they won't wear it out in "public."  They fail to understand that the quad lawn is public.  Cognitive dissonance, that is.

You'd think I'd be into this tights thing.  Well-toned attractive women walking around in spandex is a neat idea at first, but it's kinda hard to ask a girl out when there's really nothing to imagine on the first date.  It wouldn't be *that* hard to pull a pair of jeans over tights, or to *gasp* change clothes, but it's evidently more than one can ask of a dance major.