<p>My H’s attention to his grooming and his own style sense was definitely one of the things that appealed to me. It was definitely masculine (not today’s effeminate metrosexual look) but I knew right away he’d been raised well. I’m proud to say my boys know to take off their hats in restaurants and know when a t-shirt will do and when a t-shirt will not do. Whether they end up in a super casual office or a not so casual office I will never have to worry that they don’t understand what to wear mostly due to my H. And whether people want to admit it or not your clothes do send a clue about you…it’s not about jeans or not jeans or the the current NY or LA trends or how much you spend…it’s about how you pull it all together and present yourself.</p>
<p>Though my H dresses very well indeed (he is a film costumer by trade) it does not indicate that he was raised well. In fact he barely escaped a horrific upbringing. Where he gets his exquisite taste is beyond me. For this reason, I never make assumptions about someones life by the cut of their jacket.
Many times a persons disregard for dress, indicates that they have a disregard for dress and nothing more. They are not evil, bad, stupid or plotting the demise of western civilization. They possibly just do not care.</p>
<p>One of the reasons I’m glad my son is going to an all-boys prep school is that he will learn about dressing and grooming. My husband is the love of my life, but as we say in my family, he was raised by wolves and can’t pass along the gentlemanly arts to our son. In fact, it was CC’s own 07Dad who gave me all sorts attire/tie information to impart to my little charmer.</p>
<p>Oh zoosermom, please don’t expect the all-boys school to teach your little charmer the finer points of dressing and grooming. I’ve worked in an all-boys school for 15 years. The dress code is blazer, tie, khaki pants, and no sneakers. You don’t want to know the combinations these boys put together. The clothes are often mismatched and look like they’ve been slept in. As for their hair, I don’t think many of them own a comb. Actually, with no girls around to impress, fashion and grooming is just not on the radar screen for these boys.</p>
<p>We moved to all casual all the time around 20+ years ago. As the workforce ages (we seem to have a pretty good sized geezer crowd, everyone is 40+ or more, and it’s a very high tech company in the Midwest) we keep getting even LESS casual. Have not gotten to flip flops and muscle shirts yet, but just about. My standard outfit is jeans and a dress shirt…</p>
<p>LOL. It happens. My S3 is known for living in baggy athletic shorts and tees in wild colors and patterns as clothing of choice, although I was heartened because this past spring he asked me for “more ties” after getting “yelled at” by my H for “borrowing ties” to wear to the away lacrosse matches (they wear shirt/tie to the away meets). I was startled and then realized that at least he knew how to “tie a tie” because I’m not sure every boy knows how to do that these days. I cringed because S3 needs long ties because of his height and I’m sure H’s ties when tied properly stopped at least 3 inches above his belt but I highly doubt S3 was aware of that subtle thing.</p>
<p>Note that many males have some sort of color vision deficiency, so what looks fine to them color-wise looks color-mismatched to those who have full color vision.</p>
<p>^ My boyfriend, his brothers, and his dad are all color deficient. The females in their lives do a color check every morning to make sure it’s not terrible.</p>
<p>My boyfriend does know how to dress himself, incredibly well, but his problem is that he errs on the side of way too formal all the time instead of way too casual, and it is just as obnoxious. I am constantly having to beg him to dress down a little more because I’ll end up looking underdressed next to him even though he is the one that is overdressed, and he once made the mistake of trying to tell me what to wear and a pretty unpleasant evening ensued. Sometimes I wish he was the stereotypical clueless male! Things would be a lot easier if he’d just let me tell him what to wear. :P</p>
<p>He looks great for work, though. He works in the IT department of a credit union, and while their dress code is business professional they do let the boys get away with not wearing suit jackets. He wears suit pants, long sleeved dress shirts, and a tie every day and as much as it irks him when it’s hot I think he’d be sad to stop wearing them. He knows he looks good and seems to enjoy putting outfits together.</p>
<p>Appears only Momofwildchild child understood my noticeable heel, sorry to all for not describing this accurately. Do those of you with knee problems not where a 3/8" heel?*</p>
<p>And Momofwildchild was correct too regarding the slipper style Toms, Bobs, and skechers, vans, and rocket dogs are what we were trying to get folks to leave at home.*</p>
<p>when describing the womens dress/ sleeves, I am also sorry, I did not type they also are allowed to wear trousers/capris. </p>
<p>I believe all dress codes may be seen as “restrictive”. This occurs Any time you have a list of<br>
“don’ts”.</p>
Can never figure that out. The elevators advertise the building as being totally green and to that end, it has the crappiest paper towels and toilet tissue you will ever use. My personal theory is that the scion of the family that owns the building, who is a serial killer, has hidden the bodies somewhere in the building and wants to keep them cool.</p>
<p>
Ha! Good one. I only wish. He currently wears basketball shorts and t-shirts all the time. Which are adorable on my 13-year old son. Not so much on my obese husband.</p>
<p>Not only that, but the more restrictive a given high school dress code is, the more likely the students…especially young boys will rebel and go complete opposite once they’re free of such restrictive dress codes in college.</p>
<p>This was almost a recurring theme at many private colleges…especially at my undergrad where formal corporate/business casualwear is often equated with mindless bourgie conformity and a sign the wearer is hopelessly too conventional at best…and an obnoxious snotty high school preppie/GOP/Libertarian club type at worst. </p>
<p>The ones who really were hardcore about this rebellion…alums from private/Catholic schools with mandatory uniforms/restrictive dress codes. </p>
<p>My view: If you love dressing up…knock yourself out as that is your right under the freedoms we have in this fine country. </p>
<p>However, others have the same right to not dress up and IMHO…it’s wrong to disparage/negatively judge others on such superficialities. </p>
<p>Only exceptions are if it’s in a job situation which requires direct client contact or facing the greater public.</p>
<p>You don’t mean reused toilet tissue, do you?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Seems that a lot of dressier clothes’ target market is middle age obese men, given that they seem to be cut rather generously in the abdomen area. Younger or athletically built men often have trouble finding well fitting off the rack dress clothes (interns and new graduates wearing suits or dress shirts often do not look too good because their suits or dress shirts do not fit, and they cannot afford custom tailoring). Even sports clothes sold in the US are often floppy in the abdomen while being tight on the chest when worn by actual athletes.</p>
<p>H wore a jacket to school everyday, and he still is most comfortable wearing a suit, so not everyone rebels. </p>
<p>
Really?! H is not obnoxious, he is not GOP, and he is not a libertarian, but not he was a prep. Our kids are preps, but do not fit into the generalization, especially the obnoxious, snotty part. They dress the same today as they were in high school.</p>
I’m one of the (apparently) few conservatives posting on CC yet I’m the one responding in favor of casual attire (or really, whatever people want to wear, including formal if that’s what they like) and suggesting people be open minded enough not to draw leaping conclusions based just on what someone’s wearing since they’ll often be incorrect.</p>
<p>Those were commonplace perceptions among undergrads at my undergrad where the campus culture leaned radical progressive left.* Keep in mind that when I attended in the mid-late '90s, unless you were in the conservatory…wearing formal corporate wear like a suit around campus or to class tended to be interpreted as a statement of support for the prevailing conventional bourgie upper/upper-middle class establishment and/or an obnoxious dig at the prevailing neo-hippie/radical left activist majority. </p>
<p>Granted, I heard from more recent alums/graduates that the campus culture has moved much more toward the conventional mainstream politically and in aesthetic matters so maybe wearing formal corporate wear won’t elicit the same perceptions/reactions as it did when I attended. </p>
<ul>
<li>If you were a Liberal Democrat…you were considered too conventional/right-wing for many of them back then. One classmate I knew transferred in from Berkeley because he said the prevailing campus culture/students were becoming “too right-wing/conventional” for him.</li>
</ul>