Men's Formal Fashion or Lack Thereof

How did men's formal fashion ever degrade to the point of being so
"clone–ish". Formal clothing worn by men such as suits and tuxes all look
the same! There is really no variety in style or color. Men's fashion has
not changed significantly in years and essentially reminds me of a
"Uniform". When a man attends a formal event there is essentially no
difference between what he is wearing and what the waiter is wearing. If you
examine men's fashion throughout history you will notice that this
degradation of men's fashion to a utilitarian uniform has occurred over that
past 100 or so years. Prior to that time period, men's fashion was actually
interesting. Men should wake–up and demand something better from the fashion
industry so that they do not look like clones or Penguins when attending
formal events.
I will never understand the male burqa (men's ties). They serve no
functional purpose yet all men seem to believe that they need to wear them.
In many organizations they are also forced upon men. It seems very sexist to
me and does not really make any sense. I am an software engineer, and no
self respecting engineer would ever wear a tie. I can be very formally
dressed without resorting to wearing a tie. Scott Adams Dilbert cartoon
certainly has it wrong in that respect.
I appreciate the fact that I can wear casual or at most business casual
clothing because at least there is style variance and individuality. There
is also a good variance in athletic shoes and I have a very good collection,
unlike the lack of styles of men's dress shoes. The guy that posts to this
newsgroup with the sneaker webpage has some interesting styles.
Thank God that men's casual clothing has not yet degraded into a
clone–uniform. With the current direction of men's fashion, it will not be
long until we have a casual uniform.
–mij

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 22:25:35 –0800, "Mij Adyaw" wrote:
Ummm... it's the civilian equivalent.
IMHO, there are at least as many acceptable suit shades as there are
paint colors in most vehicle brands.
One advantage: you can get some very non–conformist ties. (My
experience is that some of the most flagrant samples were worn by a
district court judge in Texas.)
Scott Adams worked for SBC Communications (the part formerly known as
Pacific Bell).
The time I was in SBC's computer center in Kansas City, one of their
mainframes had a bottle of official Bell System aspirin sitting on the
system console. I had a college friend who had the perfect job:
computer sitting on the weekend in two twelve–hour shifts, 0700 to
1900. They counted him as having 36 hours equivalent and gave him
full–time employee benefits. The only down time was his social life on
the weekend was somewhat crimped. When he got me up there, it was when
the family wasn't going to have Thanksgiving dinner until the
evening... and somebody probably didn't give thanks when they got the
bills we printed out that morning. <grin/duck>
I make a good effort at being eclectic.
Don't we have one a de facto casual uniform... given the megatons of
jeans and T–shirts they sell?

"Mij Adyaw" <mijad...@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:872gf.1233$pF....@fed1read04...
It is a matter of societal conformity. It would be as ridiculous in a
social setting for a man to wear a bright purple suit (unless, of course, he
is a pimp) than for a group of women to wear the same charcoal gray dress.
––
I filled a lightbulb with helium and got enlightened
http://www.dwacon.com

"dwãçôn" <?????.??L...@TA?LOID.CO?> wrote in message
news:pf3gf.22515$sg5.6...@dukeread12...
My husband wears a uniform to work four days a week, lightweight wool
suit, dress shirt, tie, shoes and socks. His suits are blue, black or
gray. He doesn't look good in brown. He is very content to have the
tie be the focal point of the uniform. If he wore a bright purple suit,
he would look like a patient rather than an administrator.
Audrey

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 13:29:20 –0500, dwãçôn wrote:
But you sure see a lot of women all wearing Black Dresses...
––
Korbin Dallas
The name was changed to protect the guilty.

"Mij Adyaw" <mijad...@nospam.net> wrote in
news:872gf.1233$pF....@fed1read04:
I'm reminded of the scene in "Life of Brian" when the entire crowd recites
in unison:"we are all individuals"
––
use...@yahoo.com
http://www.gopchoice.org/

"Charlie Perrin" <nikve...@sbcglobal.net.BUTNOTWORKS> wrote in message
news:h6vqn1l0lo68vomn3t7qprq4sbu55js...@4ax.com...
Hmmmm... where do you find these multicolor suits? When I walk into a
Nordstrom or Macy, all that I see are black, navy, or gray.
The best thing to do is to not wear a tie at all!
Please continue the webpage with new sneaker findings. I do not know how
many folks on this newsgroup appreciate your sneaker page, but I for one do!
:–)
Yes, but at least the jeans and tee shirt look is more individualistic than
the suit or tux look. You too can attend your wedding and look like every
other man that is attending, or better yet, you too can look like the
waiter! In many Asian countries they have very tasteful formal attire for
men attending weddings.
I do not see very many replies to this thread because everyone knows that
this is reality, and the sad thing is that most men are content with it.

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 10:46:53 –0800, "ahmward" wrote:
After a trip to the hospital where they weren't sure at first how
disoriented I was because of my sleep problems (enough that they kept
me four days), I suspect that the patients that wear bright purple
suits are dressing to match their Nexium. <grin/duck>

What I find interesting is that in casual or business casual clothing, men
have a large number of choices. No complaints there. On the other hand, for
formal attire, men have the choice to either look like a penguin, the waiter
that is serving your drinks, or a clone of other guys in the room. Men's
formal attire is really a very simple uniform to make everyone look the
same.


"Korbin Dallas" <korbindal...@null.org> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.11.20.19.15.44.127...@null.org...

Removing individuality is just another form of exercising control over an
individual. If you are in the military, there is a very good reason for this
strategy, however for normal civilians, it is ridiculous.


"Userb3" <use...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9714AA4285D81Elvisisal...@207.14.113.17...

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 15:22:18 –0800, "Mij Adyaw" wrote:
Most people don't feel at home pounding a round peg in a square hole.
It's likely to damage the peg, the hole, and the nerves of the person
who is doing the pounding. <grin/duck>

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 09:12:14 –0800, "Mij Adyaw" wrote:
Try south of the Mason–Dixon line.
They have a greater range of hues in their Southern stores.
The last time they asked me to wear a shirt and tie to work, I decided
to be non–conformist and wear it with Teva sandals. They were so
overwhelmed by the top part they never looked at the bottom. Either
that, or they decided they couldn't win. <grin/duck>
Webalizer says I've had an average of 5607 unique visitors per day
this month. It counts a 30–minute gap (IIRC, I haven't looked at the
setup for a while now) and a return by the same IP as a new "visit" so
it attempts to deal with dynamic IPs.
AOL caches heavily to avoid bringing the real world to its knees, so
the real number is probably somewhat higher. All I see is the AOL
cache machines so I get a completely bogus number for AOL. I'm not
going to implement cookies just to improve my metrics because people
don't trust them even if they're just to help the Webmaster improve
the site. (AOL, dear AOL, how do I hate thee? Let me count the
ways.... <grin/duck>)
Don't we have one a de facto casual uniform... given the megatons of
jeans and T–shirts they sell?
White on the top, blue on the bottom?
You just as well show your individualistic streak with as a pair of
black high–top Chucks. You and the 600 million other pairs.
Most men are upset enough to have their wife insist they go to the
doctor for Viagra. Maybe the wife could put a hint in the doctors' ear
to put him on Revatio off–label for high blood pressure.
Viagra was originally an attempt to make a blood pressure medicine,
they found it had different effects. Revatio has the same active
ingredient as Viagra. it is labeled for pulmonary hypertension, a
rarer cousin of garden–variety high blood pressure. It will also bring
down blood pressure a bit: the reason you can't put Viagra with
glyceryl trinitrate (medical nitroglycerin).
Some of my doctors have said I would have made a good doctor (I'm
curious about the subject, and when the family comes down with
something I research it, and that results in enough interest in the
subject that I buy medically–related stocks as my technology component
instead of computer stocks), but I say, "I prefer things that don't
bleed or go ouch, like computers." (The first time they drew blood
from me, right befoe I went to college, I passed out. I came to
saying, "At least I decided to go to engineering school and not
pre–med!" Fortunately, I've only done that one other time and I was a
bit out of whack then.)
Don't get caught with nothing but Pfizer products if you hurt more
than Celebrex can handle. AstraZeneca may be king of GERD, but don't
get depressed over it because AZN can't help you at all with that.
Johnson & Johnson can bandage you up, and treat your epilepsy and
anemia, but you'll get depressed there, too. And Lilly's so–called
"human insulin" is NOT made out of people! They point that out in the
first paragraph of their patient literature; haven't taken it but I've
read it because I have insulin–dependent in–laws and I was curious
about the stuff when I heard the term. In other word, it's not pork
insulin (which you can still get commercially here) or beef insulin
(which you can only get in the USA on a need basis).
Anyway, being nudged to have Viagra and raising teenagers is bad
enough for the male ego. Don't push them further or they'll need a
psychiatrist if they don't have one already. <grin/duck>