This was Sixties Week at work and Thursday we were supposed to come in costume. This not being sixth grade, though management sometimes thinks it is, most people didn’t put much effort into it, but I did. And was disappointed that nobody noticed. I asked a co-worker why.
“You’re in costume?”
“The most accurate Sixties costume here. I’m dressed exactly like I was on this day in 1966: dark blue slacks and tie and a light blue dress shirt. Black broughams because I didn’t adopt wingtips until that Autumn. Classic Catholic Schoolboy.”
“I think you wore the same thing last week. You’ve dressed that way for fifty years?”
“When you find a look that works for you you keep it.”
Levis blue jeans since I outgrew Garanimals and ToughSkins during elementary school. Although I switched from zipper to button fly at some point. Started wearing only shirts with buttons, not snaps, sometime around then. as well shorts and a T-shirt since forever, but I also wear buttoned short-sleeve shirts as well. I think that started in college. The button fly probably started in college, so I guess that’s when my “look” started.
For work, at my first job I wore dress pants and a tie, although I didn’t have to. That was a nine year aside in my look. It came in handy when my son needed a tie for Jazz Band, and I still had a wide selection to choose from (and my hands still knew how to tie them). He got compliments.
I went to work at Best Buy Corporate one Halloween dressed in a red khaki shirt, beige slacks and tennis shoes, with my old Target ID badge in place of my Best Buy badge. Nobody noticed.
My look extends from the mid-80s yuppie look. Button-down dress shirt, either khaki slacks and blue blazer, or dress suit.
If I’m bold, suspenders. Problem is, when I get a compliment on them, I don’t know if it’s real, or sarcastic.
My collection of Hawaiian shirts over the years has ranged from “blindingly loud” to “almost sedate”. Luckily, working in IT means I never need to wear a tie unless I’m going to a wedding (and the last wedding I went to, I wore something from the “almost sedate” category).
One of the curious things about post-modern fashion is the general acceptance of just about any kind of clothing in public. You can just go to a grocery store and see 15 people dressed in 15 different ‘styles’. The only exceptions appear to be formal functions and some company dress policies. This is radically different than it was 50 years ago.
And refreshing.
I have a dear friend who dresses in loose, flat, “Tattooine” Jedi costume in everyday life. It works! People don’t pay any attention to it at all.
Upon numerous occasions, I’ve gone out in public in the blazer, turtleneck, boating trousers and deck shoes from “The Prisoner” and not drawn any notice. (Slightly more obvious when I wear the lapel badge…)
I’m thinking you may have run into this issue. Depending on how old your coworkers are, they may have been expecting you to come in looking like the Beetles or something out of the early hippy era. Not what the parents at that time or the Mad Men looked like.
Yeah, there was a lot of that. Or there would have, if more people had bothered. Maybe it’ll be different when we do the Seventies in a couple weeks. Or the Eighties or Nineties after that, though I’m not sure how many remember the Nineties. All I know is that my costume is set. Seventies: Dress shirt, floral tie. Eighties: White shirt, power tie (when I shopped a lot of people would ask me where stuff was because I dressed like a store manager). Nineties: Pink dress shirt, and I have just the right tie because, well, the Nineties weren’t that long ago.
Thrift stores are great if you have the tastes of a dead man, but if you have a Savers by you, go! Some of the stuff was never even touched by dead people, much less buried with them.
I just got rid rid of cordovan wing tip lace ups from JC Penneys that I got to go on a job interview in 1981 right after graduating HS. 3rd sole is the charm, the poor guys just wore out and the wingtip area leather tore.
I have the same teeth from around the late 60s to early 70s except for the fake front teeth to replace the ones I lost in a motorcycle wreck.
Oh yeah, I also still quite often wear the style of Levis, Chuck Taylors, and a T-shirt (various colors). I was doing that get up in junior high (mid 70s)
Pretty much same here, Only wear solid color T-shirts. I hate shirts with crap printed on them. Same look since 7th grade. We were looking at some old photo albums and my brother begins to laugh hysterically at a photo of me. Tells me “You’re still wearing the same thing!” Sure enough the dopey kid (me) in the photo was wearing the same type of jeans and shirt I had on at that moment.
I’m known for wearing ankle-length skirts. When I work retail or in an office, that’s all I wear*. When I acquired and wore a salwar kameez, few people knew it was anything other than “another of your hippie dresses.”
*With a few notable exceptions, such as The Day Rilchie Wore Pants and The Day Rilchie Wore a Skirt That Showed Her Legs.
I usually have one pair of board shorts for at home, and one pair of jeans for work and going out. I don’t buy replacements until they’re almost worn out. Sometimes I get wild and buy a different colour, but mostly I stick to black.
I usually own 1 t-shirt at a time. Usually blue.
I have one pair of socks and one pair of shoes.
That’s all my clothes.
It was good when I used to have a work uniform - I just wore that everywhere and mostly didn’t have to bother owning any other clothes.
That’s the way it’s been for 20 odd years now.
I have been mistaken for a homeless person a few times. That can be awkward, but whatever, I like to keep things simple when it comes to clothing.
