Vintage Personae

[Benny Holiday]

It's not that I feel different, exactly . . .

but I find people treat me differently. In Australia, dressing up means putting on clean jeans and a T-shirt instead of wearing the dirty ones you had on yesterday. Wearing vintage suits with the extra material in the legs and the classier tailored cut makes me look, I guess, like a very well-paid lawyer or something. I've found that service in shops is different, people are more polite and deferential, and that makes me feel classier. So, in a sense, I tend to behave with a little more polish and genteelness than my working class background would otherwise allow me.

A few years back, after reading Robert P Parkers "Perchance to Dream," (a sequel to Chandler's "The Big Sleep") every time I donned a DB suit, I couldn't help but imagine myself as a hardboiled detective trudging through the alleys and pitfalls of sin city. It was a short-lived fantasy, though. I've been dressing vintage for 21 and a half years now, and it's just part of everyday me after all this time.

 

[Mr_Misanthropy]

And Mr. Misanthropy, I gotta say, I got a kick out of your avatar.

Why thank you, Steve!! I am a big Stewie fan, and I happen to think he looks great in spats.

Benny, you mentioned getting better service when dressed nicely. I get that too, which I think just feeds my ego when i'm dressed as such. I guess sales people think the better you're dressed, the more money you have to spend. Just because I LOOK like a million bucks, doesn't mean I HAVE a million bucks.. but of course, they don't know that. lol