Dammit, what did I miss?!
Some putz weaponizing my (decidely not dressed-up) picture from the old user gallery.
Pictures, or it didn’t happen!
When I used to do Appellate Court arguments, the 7th Circuit had some VERY explicit rules about acceptable attire. I always thought it ridiculous that some slob who hasn’t bathed or combed his hair could be wearing a ratty old ill-fitting “suit”, and be considered to present himself more favorably than some well groomed person in a sportcoat and slacks (with or without tie.) I think it unfortunate that persons are not able to understand and assess the words being said, rather than the attire worn.
Give me a prepared competent rep wearing a swimsuit and flipflops, over some nattily attired unprepared lying jerk. (The latter is all too common IME.)
And now I’m having flashbacks to My Cousin Vinny.
Mine is a bit of a hi-jack -
Along similar lines…
A person that smoked weed a week ago, can be fired or whatever punishment. But a person that was on an all night bender and two hours of sleep, can go to work and drive a bus/truck whatever.
It’s quite insane. But it’s the same kinda thing.
“Respectability” is weird.
Way back when, I owned a suit that had pocket flaps with no pockets, three buttons on the cuff that didn’t correspond to any button holes, and a button on the front that wasn’t, for some reason, ever supposed to be buttoned. I assume suits have evolved since then.
Was it an inexpensive suit?
The non-functional pockets and front button sound like cost-cutting measures, to make something that had the visual features of a suit coat, but weren’t functional. I’ve owned and worn suits for 40 years, and all of them had functional front buttons and side pockets.
However, the buttons on the sleeve cuffs on my suits seem to nearly always have been sewn on, and not corresponding to any actual buttonholes. (I have no idea if high-end or bespoke suits actually have “functional” cuff buttons.)
LOL like those bibs imitating a dress shirt that some people once wore under a coat with tails or tuxedo.
A version was even available with a clerical collar (viz the young priest in “Saturday Night Fever.”)
I don’t think it was a high end suit. Afa the front button goes, I seem to recall JFK buttoning the top button on his suits when it wasn’t considered cool, and there was some sort of flap when Ted Kennedy authorized a statue of JFK, and specified the top button be unbuttoned.
One of my sorta peeves when watching TV is the rigidity with which suit wearers (such as lawyers) unbutton their jackets when sitting and then button when standing - even if only for a brief while. Certainly not anything I have encountered IRL.
Also seem to recall that w/ 3 piece suits, the jacket was not to be buttoned and the bottom vest button was to be unbuttoned.
IIRC, at one time I believed it was a sign of quality in a suitcoat if the sleeve buttons had fake sewn “buttonholes”, as opposed to just sewn on buttons.
This is as good a place as any to ask, what is the difference between a dog and a well-dressed man?
The well dressed man wears a 3-piece suit.
The dog - just pants.
I’ve seen that regularly, in courts and also when watching the Legislative Assembly.
There’s another universe in which there are no ties, but everybody wears capes. There’s dress capes, and casual capes. Everybody gripes about having to wear them, and nobody knows why, but there’s nothing they can do about it.
I have a very good friend (a girl, well she’s in her early 60’s) that will wear a cape. Looks good on her, and fits her lifestyle attitude somehow. One part of her is all business, the other side is a happy hippy.
I vaguely remember some distinction between business suit style and collegiate suit style in terms of the number of buttons.
Strikes me as an affectation. What is the intention WRT buttoning when standing?
Open jacket looks too casual when addressing the Court or the Assembly.
I owned a suit like that. Many years after buying it, I learned that it did actually have pockets. They were sewn shut to keep them pristine in the store. After you buy it, you cut the stitches and have normal useable pockets. Nobody told me that.
The bit about the bottom button never being used is infuriating. The way the bottom edges of the coat are cut, the button and the buttonhole don’t line up. If you do button them, it stretches the fabric, and it doesn’t hang properly. Why bother having it at all, then?