Feel like an enigma?

[Washington]

I have simliar experiences at work. I'm in software sales so people know (or at least expect) that I "dress up" for my clients. But we have a casual work environment and most people are in jeans at the office. Though I have plenty of jeans, and on the weekend you'll find me in them and work boots for the weekly trip to Lowes or Home Depot, I never wear them to the office. Still it surprises people when I show up to work in a suit or sportcoat.

I get the standard question "oh, do you have a meeting today?". People don't seem to get that I just like to dress nice. I haven't even gotten to the point where I wear my hat to the office yet. I can only imagine the comments that will provoke.


-Washington

 

[Feng_Li]

I got that reaction when I first started wearing a jacket to work, but after a few days it seemed normal to everyone.

 

[cookie]

Wearing a Suit

Yeah, this is pretty much what I get too. I wear modern suits and people still notice & call me out on it. Luckily, I work at a law firm (I'm a law student), so whenever the attorneys have to make appearances they will then come back to the office in suits so I'm not the only one. I just can't quite figure out what's preventing them from keeping it up the rest of the time...

Where I work the management has asked everyone to dress better. The trouble is the casual urge always seems to win out. It's the modern way... we need to know out place geddiitt??? We are recividivists, troglodytes, neanderthals, luddites....strange costume wearers etc and don'tcha love it?

It's like when the Catholic Church after Vatican 2 went all modern and cool. Out went 2 thousand years of tradition, music, mystery etc..

It's like Joanie Mitchell's old song "you don't know what you've got till its gone....

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I get the standard question "oh, do you have a meeting today?"

-Washington

"Nope, just felt like dressing like a grownup."

lol lol lol

 

[PADDY]

The other week...

I was invited around to some neighbours of mine for a bit of a dinner party. So as usual I got dolled up. Jacket and tie, braces/suspenders (in US), hat..etc, and some other neighbours who had also been asked came around to walk me over to this dinner party.

But before walking over, I invited them in for a drink. Andrew came in, wearing slacks and an open shirt, looked at me and said: "I didn't know it was one of those formal do's we were going to!!" I answered: "It's not, but it's nice for me to get dressed up."

He just looked perplexed, if not uncomfortable about the way I was dressed, and just could not fathom why ANYONE would want to wear a jacket and tie when they don't have to.

Also in work places, where casual dress is becoming more of the norm and Americanisms are filtrating into the UK, such as 'Dress Down Fridays!!..." I make a point of still wearing a jacket and tie.
(and I know that there have been mutterings because Middleton isn't following the sheep).

Why do people think that you have to have your shirt hanging out, the top elastic of your underpants well on dispaly, your buttons undone, shoe laces that 'on purpose' have not been tied up..etc, etc...to be relaxed???[huh]

 

[Washington]

I find the same thing at church.

I was raised that you wore you're Sunday best to church and for men that meant a suit, but lately its pretty much anything goes; which, I find a bit appalling. Thankfully I live in a pretty small town with a fairly older population who still realize what's appropriate.

Still, most of the older men still look a bit puzzled by me wearing a hat (mind you I do take it off once inside).

Washington

 

[PADDY]

An interesting point to why we do get dressed up...

I was speaking with my doctor (General Practitioner) the other week. We get on very well, and she was saying that she was looking foward to going off on a cruise of the Carribean with hubbie soon and she loves to get all dolled up in her finery for the formal evening dinners where the men wear their tuxedos..etc.

Cutting a long story short, she said that she makes a point of putting her make-up on and her good clothes before coming to work, because it is worth making an effort.

What 'that effort' tells her, is that she has respect and value for herself, for her work colleagues and for her patients/clients/service users (whatever you call them these days!).

It is a visible sign of respect for yourself and others. And I said to her, that that is one of the reasons why I am dressed up in a jacket and tie, have shaved, have brushed my teeth..etc, etc..., out of respect for 'her' as a professional and out of respect and self value of myself.

Take that to the opposite end of the spectrum, and you COULD say...

If you don't make an effort with your appearance, then you COULD lack respect and self worth of yourself and of those that you come into contact with. You then wonder why people don't treat you with the respect you feel you deserve, and so you feel less valued and are prone to make less of an effort with your appearence and it becomes a 'self realising prophecy' and a downward spiral of the world being against you!

(oh the spirtual power of just wearing a tie, suit and hat!! never underestimate a wee bit of dressing up!!)

I would not go to church without wearing a suit and a tie. It is out of respect for the occasion and for the people I am sharing that time with. It shows I made the effort and that those people and that time is worth making the effort for.

At the end of the day, making that extra effort to dress up, doesn't REALLY take that much effort!

 

[Dr Doran]

Yeah, this is pretty much what I get too. I wear modern suits and people still notice & call me out on it. .

I am a grad student at a university and I make more of a sartorial effort than the PROFESSORS, many of whom are famous in their field, and who lecture in plaid flannel and jeans. I am not saying this to point out how bad they are or how rad I am. Only to point out how standards have diminished. No longer is it a distinguished man in a black suit and tie who lectures sternly on Themistokles' strategies around Salamis in the Persian Wars. My fellow grad students think of my style of dress as an eccentricity; that's fine, but a lot of them are genuinely confused. "Is he an ultra-conservative? Are you trying to look like you're Mafia?" Luckily, I haven't yet gotten "What are you trying to BE, anyway?" They think wearing a tie means selling out to "The Man," whoever that is (?). On the occasion when a professor asks why I'm "all dressed up,"I usually say, "For your lecture. Are you saying your lecture isn't going to be worth it?" and that usually shuts them up.

But I like the KFC and DMV responses. Perhaps I'll use them.

 

[SFSEAN]

Vintage in San Francisco

How interesting...

I get a lot of people who are curious about my clothing as well. Mostly because I make my own, and they are all from vintage patterns. Lately Ill be wearing an embellished cardigan and Ill get the comment "Did you make that?!" "Um, no, I dont have a knitting machine." lol

I think that is cool, and I do so enjoy your attitude with it. You understand she is being curious and you are not putting her down for it. Her curiosity is curious to you, how adorable

LD

I think it is easier and more acceptable to wear vintage or as I refer to it-"traditional" mens wear in San Francisco because a) the climate is cooler, making hats, vests, overcoats etc. more practical wear and b) wearing a costume is common place (not that I think I am wearing a costume, wearing distinctive clothing is accepted) and c) there are lots of shops that still sell hats and other traditional mens wear. Which reminds me, I should look for a new hat, might have to go to The Hat Guys in Oakland a pick up a new Borsalino.

 

[Dr Doran]

I think it is easier and more acceptable to wear vintage or as I refer to it-"traditional" mens wear in San Francisco because a) the climate is cooler, making hats, vests, overcoats etc. more practical wear and b) wearing a costume is common place (not that I think I am wearing a costume, wearing distinctive clothing is accepted) and c) there are lots of shops that still sell hats and other traditional mens wear. Which reminds me, I should look for a new hat, might have to go to The Hat Guys in Oakland a pick up a new Borsalino.

Send me a PM if you want company when you go to the Hat Guys place in Oaktown. I have not gone there yet. I should.

 

[Lionheart]

I am a grad student at a university and I make more of a sartorial effort than the PROFESSORS, many of whom are famous in their field, and who lecture in plaid flannel and jeans. I am not saying this to point out how bad they are or how rad I am. Only to point out how standards have diminished. No longer is it a distinguished man in a black suit and tie who lectures sternly on Themistokles' strategies around Salamis in the Persian Wars. My fellow grad students think of my style of dress as an eccentricity; that's fine, but a lot of them are genuinely confused. "Is he an ultra-conservative? Are you trying to look like you're Mafia?" Luckily, I haven't yet gotten "What are you trying to BE, anyway?" They think wearing a tie means selling out to "The Man," whoever that is (?). On the occasion when a professor asks why I'm "all dressed up,"I usually say, "For your lecture. Are you saying your lecture isn't going to be worth it?" and that usually shuts them up.

But I like the KFC and DMV responses. Perhaps I'll use them.

You know - you bring up some very good points. It seems that people can't see clothing as *just clothing* anymore. They see them as "uniforms" of some kind, and there's usually a value judgement attached. Looking good because you want to should be reason enough to look good.