Where did our sense of dressing well go?
At some point in history our standard of dress has deteriorated to the point of no return. I blame this partly on the youth of the seventies and the baby boomers who seemed to think that they needed to rebel against everything and anything their parents stood for. Reading the paper today I was struck by the amazing comparison of British PM David Cameron next to his wife Samantha Cameron (see below).
Mr Cameron looks like a well dressed banker and his wife looks like she is about to go shopping with her girlfriends after she drops the kids off at school and daycare. It seems to me that many men and women have completely given up on wearing nice clothes and actually knowing when to dress up and when to dress down. They just don’t have any sense of awareness. The men these days are just as bad, so much so that when you do see a man dressed up it is quite an event.
Dressing for the occasion seems to have gone out the window as well. I have been to countless weddings, funeral and baptisms and been amazed by what people have deemed appropriate clothing. It’s become so chronic that when you do wear the appropriate clothing people look at you suspiciously like you are trying to grandstand.
A few years ago my dear old grandfather died so I flew back home and was in a corner store picking up a few things on the way to the funeral. I was wearing 100% black, I was in mourning and on the way to a funeral. The guy behind the counter decided to be a wise ass and smirkingly asked me if I was going to a funeral. I told him I was going to a funeral which is why I am wearing funeral mourning attire and that if he wasn’t careful his would be the next funeral I would attend.
Take a short wander around your neighbourhood and you will be amazed at to what is deemed to be acceptable attire to wear to the local shops. People wear dirty sweat pants, rumpled clothing, flip flops, muffin tops and shirts that should have retired to the garage rag pile along time ago.
Now I doubt any of this kind of behaviour will get any better, and if anything it will get worse over time. All I can hope for is that people finally start to understand what an occasion is and dress to it, and if you don’t, for heavens sake don’t criticise or give the fish eye to those who do.
Image via Flickr