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When is overdressing acceptable?

Lillemor

One Too Many
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Denmark
Oh, and dermatologists in Hawaii shirts and swim goggles to work. That was 14 years ago and I haven't recovered yet!

The last few times I've been to a larger city I've been shocked at the amount of flip-flops I've seen walk those metropolitan streets.:eek: I thought it was only beach/swim hall wear. I don't even own any. I don't own sweatpants either. I'm going to use my camisoles for their intended use in the future. I'll at least wear a sheer, short sleeved shirt over them on hot days.

I still own shorts and will continue to wear them around my house and local sleepy town if I'm doing kindergarten and school run. In a modern, retro context "city" shorts can be dressed up with short sleeved shirt tucked in and dress sandals so you don't look sloppy.

As a homemaker in a rural sleepy town, I wear stuff I wouldn't wear if I lived in a larger town with some "life" and certainly not in a city even if everyone else are slobs in my eyes. I wouldn't wear city shorts in a city fx. It doesn't offend me when I see it on others it's just my personal decision not to wear city shorts when I'm not in my rural setting.lol
 

avedwards

Call Me a Cab
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London and Midlands, UK
Tiller said:
I agree 100 percent Lizzie. The most annoying kind of Professor IMHO is the one who tries to be everyone's best friend, and forgets what subject they are suppose to be teaching. I'm not paying thousands of dollars a semester to hear the life story of some aged hippie, who wants to be my "buddy", I'm there to learn a trade. If your suppose to be teaching math, I shouldn't have to listen for twenty minutes about what happened to you the day before, before we actually start on anything worth wild. I'll take the old fashion no bs instructor, compared to the "I feel your pain" lets all get in a drum circle and talk about our feelings during History 212 crap. The money I spend on college is being spent so I can get an education, not so I can become friends with lonely people.
I'm afraid I have met some teachers who do exactly what you don't like. I've had teachers who try to be too pally with students and I've had teachers who can't stop talking about their personal life rather than the subject we pay them to teach. I have also had a few teachers who were able to get the balance between befriending and teaching students just right. However all teachers I have ever had were appropriately dressed at least (there being a uniform in England helps) though I do notice that most teachers only appear to own one suit, while only very few have varied attire.
 

Miss Neecerie

I'll Lock Up
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The land of Sinatra, Hoboken
Being too pally with the students and lacking an appropriate respect, can happen regardless of the -dress- of the person.

It is in how the person acts.

I tend to find that people that engender respect, can do it in whatever they happen to be dressed in at that moment, whether it is sandals and a tshirt, or a suit.

And someone who does not have that gift...could be in a tuxedo, and still come across as a buffoon.
 

avedwards

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Miss Neecerie said:
And someone who does not have that gift...could be in a tuxedo, and still come across as a buffoon.
If a teacher wears a tuxedo to class they will probably appear a buffoon regardless of how well they teach. Just like sandals and a T-shirt at a black tie event will always lose the person all respect by those there.
 

Miss Neecerie

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avedwards said:
If a teacher wears a tuxedo to class they will probably appear a buffoon regardless of how well they teach. Just like sandals and a T-shirt at a black tie event will always lose the person all respect by those there.


Well since this thread is not a specifically 'how do teachers need to look' thread...I was addressing -various- possibilities of over and under dressing, not just education.

The point of -some people- just engendering that respect still stands.....there have been formally dressed people that just cannot be respected...just like there have been sandal clad folks that are always respected.
 

avedwards

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Spitfire said:
I think it was either Coleman Hawkins or Miles Davis who once said:
"I allways try to dress better and sharper than my audience"
I think that anyone on a stage other than a technician or an actor in costume should dress with the same or more formality than the audience. Be it a musician, a politician a teacher in a school. Good quote.
 

avedwards

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Miss Neecerie said:
Well since this thread is not a specifically 'how do teachers need to look' thread...I was addressing -various- possibilities of over and under dressing, not just education.
I got carried away in my own thread :). All I really wanted was to know how many other people overdress for some occaisions, I ended up with a whole interesting discussion. :D
 

Lillemor

One Too Many
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Denmark
Spitfire said:
I think it was either Coleman Hawkins or Miles Davis who once said:
"I allways try to dress better and sharper than my audience"

I don't know who these two gentlemen (Miles Davis...has been heard before) are but I'd certainly expect that of entertainers I pay to see! Sadly this seems lost of the "I am my art, blah, blah, blah" generations.:rolleyes: If not better dressed than their audience, they should at least wear something interesting.
 

Spitfire

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Copenhagen, Denmark.
avedwards said:
I think that anyone on a stage other than a technician or an actor in costume should dress with the same or more formality than the audience. Be it a musician, a politician a teacher in a school. Good quote.

Teaching advertising and film at the university I allways do.
On the other hand, the students look like...eh....students. So the effort is not that big...;)
But I have the feeling, that the things I say, gets more importance and sink better in, if I not only sound - but also look like a man who knows!
 

BlancheDubois

Familiar Face
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Location
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If I am dressed at the same level of formality or informality, based upon the occasion, as my grandmother would have dressed in the early 1960s, then I don't consider that to be overdressing but appropriate dressing for the occasion. In pondering this topic, I realized that is my subconcious guideline.

For church, dinners out, weddings, funerals: My best dresses (these usually have to be drycleaned) with stockings and heels. I wear hats and gloves to church but not to dinners out.

For errands around town: Day dresses, (washable rayons and cottons), with stockings and polished, attractive shoes with a small heel

For around the house: Sturdier washable cotton or rayon dresses with the older version of the same type of shoes I wear for errands around town. (Once the shoes become too worn for around town, they become my around the house shoes.)

And when it comes to teaching, mentoring, and guiding younger people by example, I'd rather be a thermostat than a thermometer.
 

KeyGrip

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Santa Cruz, CA
Spitfire said:
I think it was either Coleman Hawkins or Miles Davis who once said:
"I allways try to dress better and sharper than my audience"

Regardless of the source, this is a great quote. I know my band has a dress code, and we go out of our way before shows to make sure that everybody is dressed at a certain level. I think it has an effect on our audience as well; I've noticed some people who friequent our shows are tending to dress more formally.
 

Feraud

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Hardlucksville, NY
Spitfire said:
I think it was either Coleman Hawkins or Miles Davis who once said:
"I allways try to dress better and sharper than my audience"
I read similar a similar comment from Sonny Rollins.


Edit- Misread.
 

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