Swoon 
I love getting dressed up pretty, just for fun. I love romantic long flowing dresses, flounced skirts, bell sleeves, plenty of black lace. My style may not be strictly formal or proper, but I do love to cut an elegant figure. It wins me tons of compliments simply because no one else dresses up. That makes it so easy to make a splash with my fashions. I have no competition.
I’m always baffled how so many of my fellow Americans say they wear jeans instead of dresses to be more “comfortable.” I just don’t get it how jeans can be more comfortable than a flowing dress. Jeans feel really heavy and uncomfortable to me in comparison to long dresses and skirts. Maybe it’s because of the sense that if you wear a nice dress, you have to wear pantyhose and heels along with it, and it’s the pantyhose and heels that cause the discomfort. I get around that by wearing thigh-high stockings and low heels. Stylish dressing plus comfort! Anyone with a brain should be capable of combining the two qualities at once. They aren’t either/or. For me, a long flowing crinkle cotton peasant skirt with an elastic waist is the most comfortable thing anyone could possibly wear in the summer.
On most days I take advantage of my company’s casual dress code (or, rather, lack of a dress code), especially in the summer, but I believe in dressing for customer meetings, the theater, the orchestra, and certain dinners out. I also believe in dressing for holiday gatherings, a concept that is lost on certain members of my family (I’m not talking black dress and pearls, but not jeans and a t-shirt either). Hell, I dress better for happy hour than I’ve seen others dress for funerals.
When it’s just me at home, I’m in shorts and a t-shirt – or sweats, depending on how cold the room is and whether I feel like messing with the thermostat. But usually shorts and a t-shirt … very casual. I do enjoy really dressing up every now and then, though, which is one reason why I go to my company’s holiday party every year.
#1) I’m fat. My thighs rub together when I walk. If I wear a skirt w/out pantyhose for an entire day, my legs start to chafe (and with pantyhose I’m in danger of starting a small fire). I’m one of those people who goes to the bathroom maybe once a day when I’m at work, so it’s a pain the ass to try to re-apply anti-chafing lotion at random times during the day.
#2) Skirts are more comfortable when standing or walking (and I think that I look nice in long skirts when I’m standing or walking), but when sitting you have to be all ladylike and either cross your legs properly or cross your ankles. I’m too fat to pull off the former, and too fidgety to deal with the latter. I need to be able to switch positions frequently, sometimes putting one ankle under the other leg or sitting with one ankle on the other knee (like guys do). The ankle-under-leg can sometimes be pulled off with a long enough skirt, but the ankle-on-knee never looks good.
I like to wear long skirts to work every now and then, summer or winter, but I usually wind up wishing I’d just worn pants.
I have no idea whether my points also apply to any women who are not overweight, but at least for me these are two huge reasons why I prefer pants to skirts on an everyday basis – even with the thigh-high stockings and low heels, which is what I do in the winter with my skirts that don’t have side slits. 
i was forced to wear a shirt/tie/blazer in high school (private college prep school with a dress code), i HATED it, hated being told what to wear, once i graduated, i promised myself i’d never voluntarily wear that crap ever again, and gleefully burned the frelling ties, donated the blazers to the local thrift store
i’ve been a jeans/t-shirt/sweatshirt guy ever since, to me “dressing up” consists of a collared shirt and decent pants, but that’s as far as i go, i will NEVER wear a hangmans noose…err…tie ever again, i plan to be buried casual
one general thing i’ve found is that women seem more willing to dress up then men, probably because anything that has a friggin’ tie associated with it is UNCOMFORTABLE and restrictive, women get to wear nice, comfortable, loose fitting clothes, guys are stuck with a noose around their necks
if i ever became dictator of the planet, i would outlaw dress codes, if you want to wear a suit/tie/tux/whatever, that’s your decision (one i’ll never understand, but…), but no one will be able to force you to, anyone that attempts to will be fired…
…out of a cannon, into the sun
if i was really feeling anti-suit at the time, i’d probably have the factories where the crap is manufactured evacuated then bombed to bits
I’m always amazed at what some people deem to be appropriate attire for court. Since I’m a public defender, my clients are indigent, and I realize that they’re not going to show up in an Armani suit, but a lot of people wear shorts and a t-shirt- even t-shirts with drug or alcohol references! I always tell my male clients to wear a long-sleeved shirt and long pants, and we have a small collection of court-appropriate attire in my office if they don’t have those things, but most of the time it doesn’t sink in. As for some female defendants, jeez, this isn’t a strip club, put some clothes on!
If I ever become dictator of the world, I would force people to use proper capitalization and punctuation, so let’s hope we don’t simultaneously become dictators, or there will be hell to pay from both sides. (I guess that private college prep school paid too much attention to ties and not enough to writing classes!)
Well, heck, even I (used to) wear shirts and ties to work daily even at entry level positions. Now I’m in a casual office environment, so it’s jeans and polos. Most of my friends wear shirts, ties and slacks to work. And people at a baseball game in the 30s and 40s were usually dressed up because they didn’t have night games, so a crowd at a weekday game was likely taking a break from the office.
Did people wear button ups and cotton trousers more often in the 40s and 50s? Sure. But that can be considered casual wear even today - people walk around with button ups and khakis (or nice jeans) all the time around here. I don’t think people go dressed up that much more often, except for things like church, I think.
For me, it is cost of dress clothes. I’m a student and most days it is a hoodie, jeans and hiking boots. I can wear a pair of jeans more than once a week (with a different top) and no one thinks it is odd. If I wore the same dress twice in one week people might think I’m a bit strange. Plus I am a non-trad student and I dress like I do so I fit in more with the other students and not like the dressier profs. Third, I have never been comfortable in dresses or skirts. There are certain ways you need to sit/act when dressed up and that’s not the real me.
I do have a few dresses/skirts for weddings/funerals, but they are not my favorite clothes to wear. And heels were invented by the devil - I hate them with a passion.
Just popped in to apologize for my post of MacTech, above, which was out of place and uncalled for. As a writer and copy editor, I have “buttons.”
Which brings up a point about “a time and a place.” Just as my post would have been appropriate in a thread about good writing and the educational system, so too, would jeans and a T-shirt be totally the right thing to wear on certain occasions, and a nice suit with a tie the right thing to wear on others. I just came back from the laundromat, and the people in jeans and T-shirts were well-dressed for a laundromat. There was a woman there in stretchy shorts and a halter top, and the only place that would have been appropriate is a 7/11 in a whorehouse.
I knew there was a reason I liked the devil! I just don’t care for his ham.
Eve: You know about fashions. I have a question for you about my ‘sport coat’. I bought it six or seven years ago. Rather nice material (I don’t remember what it is). It’s sort of ‘off black’. Not charcoal, but it seems to have the tiniest element of purple in it under the right light. The fabric has vertical striations, but they’re not pin-stripes. I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re common in suits. Maybe they are pin-stripes, only the same colour as the rest of the material. It was made in Italy. Anyway, I totally dig this jacket.
But it’s not really a ‘sport coat’ as people think of them. Sport coats have two buttons near the bottom. This one buttons all the way up. Do you know what it’s called? I’ve never seen another like it.
No, if anything, I’m a tad underweight, and I feel extremely uncomfortable in dresses/dressy clothes.
I think alot of it is what you were trained to wear growing up. We aren’t church-going people and we certainly didn’t hang out at the country club, so growing up we had no occasion to get gussied up.
My boss on the other hand was raised to put on heels, a dress and the whole nine yards just to go to the mall. She isn’t required to dress that way at work but it’s what she is comfortable with, so she does.
For me it’s not so much about physical comfort, it’s just that in dressy clothes I do not feel like myself, so I am self concious the whole time, therefore uncomfortable.
Word!
For a fun take on this theme, George R. R. Martin’s countercultural novel The Armageddon Rag told of a guy who’d been raised by an ultra-right-wing militaristic macho dad. His freshman year in college, he turned into a gentle hippie. He took his big collection of prep-school, conservative ties, removed the stitches, opened them up, and sewed them into a multicolored poncho. How subversive of the system can you get?
I think it’s just called a suit jacket, and it sounds very nice indeed, like it would go well with anything from jeans to dress pants.
Why, by the way, do people seem to think there is nothing between “gussied up” and “just fled a burning building?” Low-key casual elegance is not expensive or uncomfortable, and it fits in anywhere. I wouldn’t wear a Little Black Dress to the deli, nor would I wear a sweatsuit . . . well, anywhere, but that’s just me.
I’ve worn it with jeans, and with slacks.
Yesterday I wore black corduroy trousers with a red button-down shirt and black shoes. Not my normal costume of jeans and whatever-shirt, but I felt like a nicer look.
I received the latest sales catalogue from REI and went down to look at some jumpers/pullies/sweaters (take your pick of terminology). Solid-colour washable wool by Sierra Designs. I had to ask the sales girl about the colours, since I don’t know how to dress myself. I liked the ‘denim’ and the ‘graphite’, and she said those would look good with my brown hair. She said the ‘sage green’ (closer to tan, actually) would blend in too much. I looked at the brown and it was right out. I didn’t like it at all. I think the blue or graphite would look good with khaki trousers or jeans. The blue may look good with grey trousers, too. Unfortunately the sale doesn’t start until Friday, so I got a Pendleton wool blanket I’d been eying instead. (That’s not something I’d wear in public, though.)
I beg to differ, sir!
:o
Ugh. Jeans and t-shirts are comfortable, ergo, better. Who decides this crap, anyway, that skirts and dresses and jackets and ‘dress pants’ (whatever they define, exactly) are “nicer”? In my opinion, more often than not they look lame and forced. Me personally? I own two black skirts (one long, one short), one khaki skirt, one pair of black heels, two ‘nice’ blouses (both gray and black), and a handful of ‘nice’ button-down shirts for work - the button-downs get worn with jeans, which, apparently, makes jeans acceptable.
Dressing up is just a facade, IMO.
Bonus question: Why on earth did anyone ever dress up to fly? It’s not going to be comfortable to wear a skirt or suit for a six-hour flight, and especially not a tie. And it’s not as if anyone beside the people in your row are going to see you. I can understand if you’re going to get off a plane and go straight to a business meeting, but…yeesh. I had to wear a tie for work this summer, and dear Og, you could not pay me to keep it on for a second longer than I had to.
The only pants I find comfortable are jeans. Khakis, casual slacks etc, are very uncomfortable. I like the look of many jackets, dress shirts and ties I’ve owned. It’s the pants and shoes that I hate to wear. I also hate being made to dress in a certain way in order to be admitted anywhere. I own a tuxedo and a black velvet cape. I would love to get a top hat and wear the ensemble somewhere just for that look of supreme elegance. But when Wicked comes to town, I want to wear clothes that are comfortable so that I won’t be distracted and can give the show the undivided attention it deserves.
I just realized that for formal restaurants, it’s too bad the clown outfit I’m sewing doesn’t include a shirt and pants. I’ve got a large tophat. I’m working on the tail coat. I’ve got several truly loud and tasteless ties (I think the 1950’s pinup calendar tie would work best) that work with the hat and coat. As it is, I coud wear the outift and defy them to deny me entrance on grounds of dress code. “This is a formal jacket! I am wearing a tie!”
I agree that wearing the same dress too frequently might be strange in any circumstances, but… if I have three Scottish cashmere sweaters and three top-quality tweed skirts and one top-quality tweed blazer, I will happily rotate them for years and years and not give a flying f*** what all of the people in jeans and hoodies think of me. And I will spend less money on clothes, too.