FNB - I always like it when you list two/twin/side vents as standing out in USA. Its cute.

Is part of the reason the ascot is despised is because it is usually silk, and men are not supposed to wear silk next to their skin? Apart, of course, from some silk shirtings favored by gangsters, pimps, etc. There is nothing else intrinsically wrong with the ascot other than the unfortunate associations of pretension, etc.  Men can wear huge gaudy wool scarves without much worry, and of course the turtleneck, if you have big enough Michael York-sized sideburns, and bandana-themed scarves with knots.

Must say though no one has ever even mentioned anything when I wear an ascot. I suppose if you wear it and it overpowers you (or you think it does), you shouldn't wear it. I tend to wear them in winter with a piece of knitwear and a tweed jacket. Worn "formally" or like a playboy I think they are trickier and this aspect of them is more in people consciousness and probably the reason for their lack of popularity.

david reeves - its not that people might mention if I was wearing a cravat. If people say anything then there is no great problem - its out in the open and no real unknown judgment is made - it s the unspoken judgment that is the worry. Especially is the worry of judgment as a cad when those judging are not even conscious of why the think what they think.

If they think, consciously but to themselves, "I don't like cravats - they make people look like upper class cads and bounders", then I am enough of a believer in the talking therapies to think that naming the thing makes it less likely to influence behaviour.

Wow! Had no idea people worried about such things so much.

http://cambridgetab.co.uk/opinion/look-at-my-red-trousers

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/fashion-style/the-origin-of-red-fcking-trousers/

Last edited by Bishop of Briggs (2012-04-26 11:36:05)

I've got a Red Pants story.
When I went to college, fresh from Puerto Rico in 1972, I had a pair of hip hugger red bell bottom jeans.
I wore them once in a while. Everybody else wore the uniform (worn and tattered blue jeans, flannel shirt, and a Parkas coat when it got cold). I thought "the uniform" was dreary and depressing but that the american kids would soon see the light of fun clothing. Hadn't they watched Mod Squad?
One night, a friend of mine (who is now a well known radio personality in Chicago) asked to borrow the pants. Proud of myself and encouraged by his open mindedness, I not only lent him the pants but let him "Check a few things in my closet".
After a few beers downtown I came back to the dorm, where my friend and a few others were playing a few numbers as a makeshift clownish imitation of "The New York Dolls" (for those of you old enough to remember). Unbeknownst to me my closet had served as the costume dept.
Needless to say I didn't know who the New York Dolls were, or what they meant, but when I walked into the room I was the recipient of the full  panoply of "ribbing", from friendly to aggressive retaliations for offenses I must have unwittingly (well, to be fair some wittingly) committed.
So much for the rugged individualism of american college youth, I thought, and from then on I wore "the uniform".
So as of today the issue of red pants is still hard to get my head around, much less buy a pair.
But I can see why someone would walk around yammering "Look at my f*cking Red Pants!"

Last edited by Chévere (2012-04-26 15:54:42)