Wearing vintage is considered costumes.

[HudsonHawk]

Let's face it folks...the Chrismans are just gloss hounds looking for publicity and donations to prop up their "long-term experiment" and make a few bucks. If they were really interested in just quietly living a certain lifestyle, they wouldn't be hitting me up for a cash donation on their decidedly 21st century website.

 

[Edward]

Another thing I've noticed is that many couples from Japan have their wedding photos (or at a least a set of wedding photos) taken in Central Park. On a nice day, it is not unusual to encounter several Japanese couples having their wedding photos taken in Central Park. I've often wondered if there is a reason that so many couples from Japan do this - has it taken off, in Japan, as a "thing to do" (have your wedding photos in NYC) for Japanese couples that can afford it?

I don't know about Japanese customs, but certainly well-heeled Chinese brides will take their wedding dresses with them when they go on holiday - often not even just on the honeymoon - for a 'wedding' photoshoot wherever that may be. We see quite a lot of them in London. I wouldn' be surprised if this is also common with wealthy Japanese folks too.

And there you go. Here's the Chrisman's side of the story.



Emmeline Pankhurst lives!

There's only one reaction I have to reading her side of it: what a pretentious, self-entitled ass. If she really reacted the way she depicts herself in this blog, then she deserved all she got. It sounds as if they were far more patient with her than she deserved.

 

[MisterCairo]

Let's face it folks...the Chrismans are just gloss hounds looking for publicity and donations to prop up their "long-term experiment" and make a few bucks. If they were really interested in just quietly living a certain lifestyle, they wouldn't be hitting me up for a cash donation on their decidedly 21st century website.

If they'd spent 5% of the time it took them to write that treatise looking at the Garden website while they carefully planned their pre-paid trip, they'd have known that however they describe their own dress , it was not allowed ("no period dress").

"Look at ME! Look at ME!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are now allegations that the "no costumes/no period dress" rule was added to the Garden website after this brouhaha erupted. Plague take 'em all.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I like that victorian couple:

 

[Bamaboots]

There's only one reaction I have to reading her side of it: what a pretentious, self-entitled ass. If she really reacted the way she depicts herself in this blog, then she deserved all she got. It sounds as if they were far more patient with her than she deserved.

I was going to add to this but Edward, Lizzie and MisterCairo, you guys nailed it.

 

[Edward]

Mn. What particularly grated on me were the references to staff as "menials" (does she really take their experiment so far as to adopt some of the uglier class-based attitudes of the time? Does she think that's clever?), the petulance of the "we found muh nicer places anyhow" tone in the subtitle, and the encouragement of others to email the company and give them a hard time. (Interestingly, that last one, had she done it here in the UK, could potentially land her in legal trouble as it might be argued to be an incitement to a denial of service attack.)

The irony is that I was actually somewhat sympathetic towards then when I first saw the news report; my now utter lack of sympathy for them in entirely down to her own doing.

 

[Stearmen]

Probably the two Utes were low on grits and what better place to shop than
at a small store in Alabama.

Not sure hominy boxes of grits they bought.
I would hope enough for the coming winter.

 

[BlueTrain]

The word costume has a different meaning in different English-speaking places. But I don't think it ever refers to ordinary every-day dress. But the problem with customary and acceptable dress and manners is that the rules, and there are rules, are so complicated. But they are also flexible and elastic, if you're clever and polite. They have to be that way because they're a little different everywhere and the rules change as the day goes on and the seasons change.

The only hard and fast rule is, you can't make up your own rules. It isn't clear who does but nobody has the privilege or authority to write their own rules of behavior, except for the very rich, of course. They don't so much have the power to write their own rules so much as they have the power to ignore the rules, written and unwritten. Most of the time.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The only hard and fast rule is, you can't make up your own rules. It isn't clear who does but nobody has the privilege or authority to write their own rules of behavior, except for the very rich, of course. They don't so much have the power to write their own rules so much as they have the power to ignore the rules, written and unwritten. Most of the time.

Zuckerburg and his hoodie come to mind. Which has actually become acceptable - or within the rules - in some places it would never have been before because of him.

 

[Edward]

Zuckerburg and his hoodie come to mind. Which has actually become acceptable - or within the rules - in some places it would never have been before because of him.

You reckon? I'd certainly put the "we so rebels" casual dresscode of Silicon Valley and its success stories down as a big part of the casualisation of many corners of society, though I've never thought of Zuckerberg having that much effect as an individual, style-wise. Interesting point, though. The cult of Steve Jobs certainly allowed his anti-style, anti-clothing, almost, approach to be influential.

 

[Fading Fast]

You reckon? I'd certainly put the "we so rebels" casual dresscode of Silicon Valley and its success stories down as a big part of the casualisation of many corners of society, though I've never thought of Zuckerberg having that much effect as an individual, style-wise. Interesting point, though. The cult of Steve Jobs certainly allowed his anti-style, anti-clothing, almost, approach to be influential.

You might be right in the cart-horse timeline. I just noticed that after he became famous, hoodies started growing in popularity and acceptability. And I assume this is cresting as last year I saw a cashmere hoodie for several hundred dollars. When the stupidly overpriced extreme versions of a trend start happening, it is usually on its last legs.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was quite a bit of that in Hollywood in the late thirties -- Bing Crosby was renowned for his sloppy dress off-camera, and would appear on stage for his weekly radio program wearing baggy slacks, a poorly-fitted polo or Hawaiian shirt, and a shapeless old hat to cover up his baldness, and his style went on to inspire others, especially creative types, to adopt a similar "don't give a damn about clothes" approach. The radio writer/director Arch Oboler was another example of this -- he ran all of his broadcasts while wearing a dirty old sweatshirt and "dungarees." There's a reason why these guys hated television.

 

[BlueTrain]

Actor Dick Powell was quoted as saying that the best thing about switching from being an actor to being a director is that you don't have to shave or hold in your stomach anymore.

When you imitate people like Steve Jobs or anyone who dresses in a certain way just because he can, it's just another form of conformity.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Actor Dick Powell was quoted as saying that the best thing about switching from being an actor to being a director is that you don't have to shave or hold in your stomach anymore.

When you imitate people like Steve Jobs or anyone who dresses in a certain way just because he can, it's just another form of conformity.

I always thought Steve Jobs dressed like a 1960s TV science fiction villian. Which is kind of what he was.

 

[Fading Fast]

I always thought Steve Jobs dressed like a 1960s TV science fiction villian. Which is kind of what he was.

I thought the left liked Jobs cause he stuck it to the man - in this case Microsoft and put computing fun back in the hands of the public? I prefer Apple to Microsoft because its products work dramatically better, are dramatically more reliable and the company has insanely dramatically better customer service, but I have no political view of it.

However, as noted, I did think the left liked it versus Microsoft. There was definitely a left-over-'60s vibe out front the flagship Apple store on 5th Avenue last week when the iPhone 7 was released - a decent line of hippie-ish-dressed kids camping out for a few days ahead of time.

 

[BlueTrain]

We use both kinds here at work and there are no leftists on the premises. There might be a socialist or two but they don't drive Saturns, so they probably aren't really socialists at all.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I never bought into the Apple Cult -- the whole image of the "scrappy little outsider company" was created out of whole cloth by the Boys. I use Macs because that's what I learned to use a computer on back in the '90s, but I don't have any ideological attachment to the brand, and I actively disliked Jobs when he was alive. 60s TV Science Fiction Villian right down to his shoes.

 

[Frunobulax]

I never bought into the Apple Cult -- the whole image of the "scrappy little outsider company" was created out of whole cloth by the Boys. I use Macs because that's what I learned to use a computer on back in the '90s, but I don't have any ideological attachment to the brand, and I actively disliked Jobs when he was alive. 60s TV Science Fiction Villian right down to his shoes.

I never made that connection before, but he really just needs to be petting a white cat in that photo to complete the look, doesn't he?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Heh. That still comes from a 1969 episode of "Doctor Who," and the character is an alien "War Lord" who uses futuristic technology to brainwash and enslave masses of people, and who always speaks in this quiet, low-key, insinuating manner. Or, in other words, Steve Jobs.