Maybe this has come up before (on here and/or on other men's style forums), but I have noticed recently that men's dress standards have deteriorated dramatically. This became particularly apparent to me yesterday when I went to Buckingham Palace to receive an award for services to charity. (I'm not a royalist and I don't even believe in charity, however I am the CEO of one, for which I pay myself a generous salary, plus plenty of free trips overseas - generally to countries where the local young ladies are rather pleased to make my acquaintance - so it seemed wise to accept.)
I was a bit worried before attending that my outfit could be too informal, as I don't own a 3 piece suit and I wanted to wear my standard button down collar shirt. I wore a vintage grey Southwick sack suit, vintage white Brooks BD shirt, vintage Brooks foulard tie, plus some new C&J black captoes to add a bit of elegance.
On first entering the Palace Ballroom I did indeed seem a little underdressed, as the older gentlemen present were in formal morning wear, uniforms or suits. Some of the younger males were also in suits, although mostly tie-less, however others were dressed in a manner that I consider completely inappropriate. Not only were many wearing distressed jeans, but most of those jeans exposed at least 40% of the wearer's buttocks. This was exacerbated when some knelt to receive knighthoods (at least they were facing Her Majesty so she was spared the distressing sight).
Furthermore many were wearing t-shirts featuring images and/or writing that were often completely unsuitable for such an occasion e.g. one man with a t-shirt featuring a large photo of Moors murderer Myra Hindley, another with the C word in block capitals, etc etc.
However what I thought to be the most egregious outfit was from one gentlemen (who appeared to be in his 40s) who wore nothing more than a giant nappy. I appreciate that the onesie was very trendy a while ago so perhaps this is the inevitable next step, but still - is it really correct for this type of event? In fact I said to him (accompanied by a stern look): 'Do you really think that outfit is appropriate?' His response was: 'It's Prada, grandad', which the people he was with seemed to find rather amusing. (To be fair the giant nappy did have noticeable Prada branding on it.)
Am I being unreasonable?
No. I have often wondered if I'm the only person in the western world who actually takes the time out to go upto youths in the street, punch them in the face and tell them to pull their jeans up. Good to know someone else cares.
Last edited by Goodyear welt (2018-04-01 02:27:47)
Pics or it didn't happen
Is it Sir Yuca now, or just Yuca OBE?
This is genius
Why Yuca! I hadn't realised that you worked for Oxfam.
This was actually an April fool's joke. Apologies to all of you who assumed it was all true.
Many a true word spoken in jest they do say.
Arise Sir Yuca ... you are a knight of this forum.
And about time too.
I can't surpass this so I might as well revive it.
I was just thinking of this the other day. Still makes me laugh. It's Prada, grandad.
Yes this equality idea has distorted the society so much that things are really dysfunctional now. The democratization of things has left us with a pile of mediocrity for too many reasons to be stated here. Healthy societies were never meant to work that way.
btw, it is exactly 1 year since this thread was started for April fools day.
Prada diaper. How gauche.
Now a J. Press diaper...
I'd argue that the most creatively vibrant and alive times in, well, certainly modern history, coincided with times in which it was affordable, and even viable, for a working class kid to pick up an art school education, move to a large urban centre, and go nuts. In fact, many of the things I love most were created by people like this.
The French mathematician Gilles Chatelet argued in the 90s that the coarsening of our culture could largely be attributed to the growth of statistics in the past 150 years, and with them, the development of the construct of the 'average man'. First, as a mathematical construct via regression analysis etc, then as a social construct as technocracies grew and expanded in both public and private sector, especially post war.
Now, I'm a technocrat myself, but I think this is a pretty strong argument......