As I look at what I think is an old Esquire image, and I can't help but wonder why we (most people in the world) left these style standards in the past. People chose t-shirts and fanny packs over style and elegance. Explains a lot in my mind actually, and it helps me to understand a myriad of crazy decisions people make today. If I seem bitter, I am :( Regardless, it is up to us WASPy types to keep some standards alive.
12 comments:
Richard,
I agree with you, but please don't be bitter. Because you have higher standards you stand out from the crowd and who knows how many people you influence for the better-I for one am learning a great deal from your posts. Thank you and please continue to share your style with the world.
Bill
Thanks for the uplifting words Bill, but I am not bitter about people's lack of fashion sense. Oh no! It is far worse than that, but I want to try and stay on subject (WASP style). Unfortunately, my bitter attitude is sometimes reflected in my writing. That is one reason why I cut tomorrow's post short.
Yes, indeed, there are still many of us who long for the days when men dressed like adults rather than like six-year-olds.
Richard (If I may call you that),
It isn't just the style, it's the manners, the attitude, the work ethic and the brevity that need to return to the forefront of a culture.
I hear that now at Harvard, you are chastised for your WASPy background - when a fair few years before, the shoe was on the other foot.
I think the sartorial efforts, first and then the culture will follow. The New York Times is always proclaiming the death of the WASP, but that's not what I see. I see the rise of the WASP.
J.J.
It always comes back to the hippies.
The blankety-blank hippies.
Good post, Richard. Why do people dress like crap? I think there are two things going on here. First, we had the 60s social and cultural revolution that targeted the Old America and her institutions, habits, history, people, etc. The objective was not only to overturn the established social consensus on values and customs, but actually to displace Old Americans with New Americans, or at least reduce the former's cultural and political influence until a new political order could be instituted. Dressing well came to be identified with the Old America, The Man, the ancien regime. As the old order was attacked and ridiculed, common standards declined, and there was less pressure on people to conform to sartorial norms. Individual expression was encouraged and celebrated. The more rebellious/creative/offensive, the better. People were free to dress like crap without suffering overt social stigma.
Second, at the same time, wealth increased over the last 40 years (especially the last 15 years), and more people suddenly were confident and rich enough to spend money on status markers other than clothing. Wealth begat independence. No longer were people slaves to the sartorial standards of the Old America, or to the corporations. The incentives to dress well disappeared. Instead they spent money on the latest consumer durables, MP3 players, fancy cars, McMansions, vacations in Hawaii, etc. These became the latest class symbols. Comfort and convenience were key. In the corporations, too, the standards declined partly as a reflection of the common culture outside, but also in part to attract and retain educated in-demand knowledge workers. It may be just a West Coast thing, but the wealthiest people I know dress like crap (jean, shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops), but drive Maseratis, live in multiple homes with central a/c and heated pools, and own private jets. The message I see is: "I'm so rich, the old standards don't apply to me."
This is no cause for bitterness. The worm will turn, eventually. :)
This general decline in all things began after WW II:
"The tendency to mumble was not always in vogue. In the 1930s and '40s, the sound and meaning of words were important not only in movies but also on records and the radio. Even though some homegrown stars like John Wayne and Gary Cooper were famously terse, audiences could at least hear and understand what they were saying. The centrality of language in the films of the 1930s led to a dependence on British actors (like Cary Grant, or on Americans who sounded vaguely British (like Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis).
The verbal eloquence of pre-World War II acting disappeared after 1945...the model of American acting became inarticulateness.
Richard Pells. "American Culture Goes Global, or Does It?" (2002)
Richard: You have spoken the truth, sir. I do also agree with and appreciate the other responses here. KEEP THE FAITH!j.j.-you're also a man after my own heart. If anyone here has not read George Frazier's "The Art of Wearing Clothes", Esquire, Sept. 1960, available at Dandyism.com and other sites, that article says it all.
Sorry-that should be Dandyism.net.
George Frazier is a legend. I'm actually drinking a Boddingtons this very moment at PJ Clarks which was one of Fraziers favorite hangouts. 5 hotties are looking my way this very moment and am trying to appear disinterested but will move in on one just as soon as I finish writing this cheers
Oh, for the days of discretion and restraint! Unfortunately, no one else in my town agrees. I blame reality television and glam rock.
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