When shops were open for six days a week many working men would not have time to buy their own clothes apart from to get fitted for a suit once in a blue moon.

Men worked Saturday - even office workers did a half day. My father worked construction and often did 7 day weeks. Overtime was more important than buying clothes. Your wife could do that.

Last edited by RobbieB (2013-01-08 06:19:22)

Chuka Umanna (sp?) gets enough stick about his expensive suits and they're just from one of those visiting outfits that wheels the trolley case around.

I think Cameron could get away with proper tailoring if he was up front about it.  Most people expect their representatives to look smart.  I guess that he's either genuinely too busy and not interested in how he looks or he's too worried about the PR.  I don't remember any fuss about him wearing a morning suit to the royal wedding though.

If you go too far the other way you just end up looking rude and thick, like Gordon Brown in his lounge suits at Mansion House.

That's true.  All three leaders' ties are horrible.  There is obviously some PR pronouncement that only plain ties shousld be worn - see also Obama and Romney.

There's a genuine fear amongst the political establishment of appearing too flamboyant or sartorially elegant, as it may cost votes or mass appeal in a culture where the suit and tie is effectively insignificant and dead.

They keep the suit, but drab it down to appeal to the poor huddled silent majority who shop for their clothes from George at ASDA.

It's a uniform of dowdiness, whilst all the rent boy, brown envelopes and autoeroticism action goes on behind closed doors. The Italians are a bit more blatant with their filthy dealings.

That much is true Kingy, but one only needs to read of the all too apparent random acts of violence in Blighty, to consider any overt display of sartorial refinery is likely to get you noticed and your head kicked in or knifed by the local disgruntled white underclass/Somalian war lord/ex-child soldier/local schizoid/second generation immigrant/drug crazed youths. There's a certain logic in dressing to blend into the grey buildings and background.

Last edited by adorable homunculus (2013-01-08 10:00:27)