^ I would agree with your summary. Naturally, they don't wear the shooting suits to market but they will mix a tweed jacket or shooting coat with working trousers and wellies. The key point is that tweed is worn by all classes in the country.

I would agree with your point about the Northern towns. Like the market towns of Dorset, Wiltshire etc, they are part of the "white flight" from Greater London. Most attractive towns within around two hours of London by train are experiencing a huge influx of middle class families and retirees.

Some people have a real hang up about class status. Let me tell you as someone brought up on a council estate theres no shame in having money or wearing your old college tie. Not that I wear mine (Mundella Boys 79-82). Nor is it some sort of elite club having nice clothes made. Lets not pretend banging on a pair of five pockets, converse and vintage sweatshirt with a frayed cuff is any sort of style. Thats the sort of stuff my window cleaner wears.

Last edited by formby (2013-09-10 12:30:33)

It's about educashun.

A cheap, nasty and badly cut suit, along with something polyester from Tierack will stand out in any room.

If the suit is such a great delineator of bearing, status and class, why is it not as popular as it once was?

Perhaps, in our post-democratic world, we, I mean I, no longer need the great leveller of the suit and this is why so many industries and organisations have eschewed this dress code?

I don't know, but I do believe in dressing with the authority and respect for your work position. And you can still gauge someone's white or blue collar status from what they are wearing on their commute - to an extent anyway.

Hmmm, I think Formby may be right, rank certainly sits better with us English, than class.

Class has connotations of rigid hierarchies, knowing one's place and all that. The old class system was like the Indian caste system: it didn't matter how much money you earned or lacked, how good a suit you were wearing or how scruffy you were, your manners and regional or lack of accent would give your status away. Things are definitely more fluid now and a lot of the old signs of where you were in the pecking order have been broken down and mixed. The suit may yet have a more prominent role to play in signifying rank, class and authority once again. But I don't see that much evidence of it, at least for now.