It's a funny old thing.

We live in a world where elegant clothes are increasingly anachronistic.  Billionaires once wore top hats and waistcoats to advertise their station in life.  Today, the wealthiest of the wealthy wear the same track suits and T-shirts as anyone else, except their T-shirts cost $250 but look like they came from a thrift store on Mars.   The millionaires-plus that I have met tend to wear polo shirts and khakis.   It is anti-class, the mark of  parvenu, to dress up too much unless you are in your seventies and set in your ways.  Dressing elegantly in the 21st century is a conscious act of rebellion and nonconformity which really interests me because the suit was once not long ago such a symbol of conformism.   Am I playacting at being a rich guy from 65 years ago when dressing this way?

It seems to me that the majority of gentlemen dressing the way we do on these forums do not do so for the common two reasons males tend to dress up : reason one is to attract the opposite sex.  A cap toe balmoral or a repp bow tie is not worn to get chicks.  If you want to attract girls (or boys for that matter) wearing a bow tie or a meticulously chosen pocket square is not going to do it.  In fact, wear your full on trad ensemble with BB sack and flat front khakis to a nightclub and girls will think you're at best a member of the Young Republicans.  Maybe that look gets all the conservative chicks, I don't know.  Reason two is is to succeed in business, the Dress for Success angle. But in business, there's an active hazard to overdressing or dressing better than the boss or clients.  Being too well dressed sets you apart and alienates you from coworkers and causes ripples in the organization.  It's a fine line and I think all of us endure our share of ribbing when coming to work in a suit in a biz casual environment or in a three piece or DB in a sea of cheap 2 buttons. 

The answer most people here I think are warming up their reply fingers to type is "I dress like this because I like it."   Sure, exactly.  It's for YOU.  It's a selfish act in a way.  It's not even done to attract girls (with the possible exception of the young republicans above), girls will think you are gay or nerdily trying too hard.  Those of us who are married usually face exasperated spouses who wish we were a little less fastidious (and didn't spend so much money on clothes, am I right).  There's a deeper reason to elegant 20th century dressing.

I was in the SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronism for a while in my misspent college age youth and they were all about rebuilding an idealized middle ages.  They knew about peasants and plagues but chose not to re-enact those parts.  The SCA is different from (and if you ask me, better than) a renaissance faire, a ren faire is about fleecing tourists out of $30 a throw to watch some knights fight while an SCA event is where everyone participates, everyone is "in garb" or wearing clothing from 800 AD - 1600 AD (a wide range, yes).  SCA people have 'personas' in which they are their self equivalents from a chosen period and place in the middle ages and interact in persona during the events.  Is it nerdy as hell, yes.  Is it kind of chaotic? absolutely.  But get the candles lit just right and have all the pewter tableware and the velvet cloaks and the bonfires and get a couple tankards of mead into you and it does seem like a different place.  It's called "The Dream" by SCAdians.

By dressing in stylish clothing that is a little too overdressed for the environment we are in our own way creating that atmosphere.  Some people on fedora lounge and such take it all the way into full on vintage ensembles.  With others it's more subtle.  But even subtly it's bringing back the 1980s instead of the 1930s.   It's such a fine line of playacting that it's almost imperceptible.  But I think in wearing a well cut pinstripe suit we are engaging in that sort of fantasy, of being a corporate power broker from the recent past (or present), or a political star, or a famous author from the recent past or a movie character.  It creates a dream.  A private little roleplay. Just for yourself. And squint your eyes just right, when you're in the right hotel lobby or office boardroom and that fantasy, on some level, becomes believable.  It's fun. 

And then some schmuck in an ill fitting golf shirt lumbers in and wrecks it.  Which is why it's so annoying, when that happens, it blows the dream out.  Which is why it's easy to decry the decline of public taste on boards like this, to commisserate with other people who know the value of that dream, that little moment where you know you've Done It Right.

I've got  more to say on this topic, but this post is long enough already.  Thanks for reading.

Last edited by GFBurke (2006-06-10 03:16:04)