Rumours?

...no, it's all true.

Saw a man in a well fitted DB tan dupioni suit with a sleeve cuff. He looked nice but unsure of himself. Clothes need confidence.

I was at a funeral^ in a hot provincial city { 30C +} the other week and I counted around 20 men out of around 70 or so blokes, at the graveside service, wearing hats. A majority of these were sporting either white or coffee or dun coloured Panama types. (I say type as I think they varied a lot from "real" Panamas) the rest were similar colours and materials but more stingy brimmed. The wider brims looked better.

I came to the conclusion that , certainly in this context, the Panamas were well accepted, looked appropriate and are probably an emerging sensible trend.*

Out of 70 - 100 blokes around 30% wore suits and ties. About 2% wore proper shoes. Only about 15% wore dark suits. Only about 5% wore dark ties and white shirts. There were some in shorts, sandals, no socks and short sleeved shirts. And everything in between.

The guest of honour was a legal bloke. Known as a snappy dresser. Character. Kind. Marched to his own drum. Well known. Well liked. Crowd was middle, some upper middle, a few ascendancy. Yobs. Teachers. Musos. Greens. Hippies. All ages.

^ Sadly it was a mate who I'd been talking to for 2+hours at a big party a week prior to funeral. It was at a friends place who is a muso/composer etc and there was much live music, theres a permanent stage with over lights and 3 phase lectrickily in backyard. The mate and myself stayed near the bar for a few hours, he had a few ciggies and drinks and we shared a joint or two. He played fiddle in one of the bands that night. We talked about his family etc and his health - he'd had a stent a while back and said he had slowed down a bit, but still smoked  a bit and drank not quite as much but possibly more than most. He had angina but wasn't doing anything sensible about it. We left about 2am.

He had a heart attack at 9 am the next morning. CPR. Ambulance. Family pulled the plug a week later.

* and surprisingly worked OK in this context - outside funeral hot sun - with dark formal wear. Probably because they are clearly very practical rather than fashion ironic..

Last edited by fxh (2013-03-09 23:26:11)

Although I don't advocate, or particularly like, fur coats.

I was at an art auction which had something of a youth slant and the men were dressed somewhat alike in short, tight jackets and jeans or bright/pastel colored khakis often with some sort of facial hair and a small brimmed, crowned hat. One man had a suit in a medium blue which was very fitted and he sported it with sand colored lace ups. In spite of the facial hair, many were effeminate and I dont know if that's a generational thing or simply the sort of men still in college who would be drawn to an art auction.

Oh yes, I forgot to add, Arabs love their kids in D&G and RL. And there was one young chap with a dickie-bow, the only thing that let him down was the lack of a collar roll, for it was a RL shirt.

I flew into London City airport after a most turbulent flight filled to the brim of bumps and sensations that this sucker is going to go down and you will never see your wife and kids again, which normally I only experience mid-Atlantic or in the tropics. Back on terra firma it was straight into a taxi to Paddington and the Fullers ale house and the full English breakfast with tea. That was enough to get my head right. And there he stood before me, a vision of affected hipster pretensions: a harmless light blue cotton shirt lulling all into a false sense of security, Atticus Finch spectacles again a good move and then the ghastly horror: green fatigue pants that suddenly became tight and creased at the ankles, no socks and a pair of brown Irish navvie brogues, the type that you can build railroads and canal cuts wearing. As he was purchasing his coffee, it was the back-pack that said it all, a myriad of tropical birds dotted all over it and I could almost hear the cacophony of bird song and parrakeet droppings, the effect was not to state he was an ornithologist despite being in the metropolis and all the contrived cool that this effort would imply, it actually just looked wrong. The type of look that would get you a good hiding in the provinces for being a pretentious student wanker. Although, I figured he was a graphic artist.

It was a pretty warm day and there was very few business folk in ties, plenty of M&S suits, cheap shoes on display, but you can say this about London, women do put more effort into dressing for business than their counterparts in the provinces and certainly here in the Netherlands where winter cowboy boots are a year round affliction.