Suits don’t have to be wool.
In areas like D.C. and the American South, summer suits are often poplin, linen, or seersucker.
I enjoy wearing a suit, it makes me look good, and as we all know, it is better to look good than to feel good.
Then at my funeral, go all out. If you must wear a suit, go for a tux with spats, top hat, flashy cane, opera cape and Phantom mask. If you simply must wear a formal dress, well figure something out.
I’m not mad at the thought of people wearing formal wear to A funeral. I’m mad at the thought of people wearing formal wear to MY funeral. Anybody going to my funeral and expecting a normal service obviously didn’t know me.
And that’s a social convention I’d like to change.
My older brother wants to be buried in his back yard. When I tell him that’s not going to happen, he gets all huffy about “respecting a man’s last wishes”. Both his wishes and yours have about equal chances of working out the way you want.`
As it stands now, I likely have 30-40 years before I die. As it stands now, the people most likely to be carrying out my last wishes are my niece and nephew. My niece (She was ashamed when I greeted her in my clown costume at the airport, so ashamed she hid behind her mother and pretended not to know me. She was four at the time.) will be extremely embarrassed by me- but will make sure my wishes are carried out. My nephew will likely think the whole thing is hilarious.
The main obstacle to my putting the FUN in my funeral is my sister. As she’s two and a half years older, chronically overstressed and sleep-deprived, I expect to out live her.
And I want a pony. Can’t always get what you want.
Some suits are just stupid looking, for example, the suit Neil Patrick Harris wears in the beer commercials. Narrow lapels, skinny tie, and an extra wide space between the lapels. Maybe he’s hip- I don’t know.
the great thing about funerals is you never have to worry about pissing off the guest of honor.
Yeah, but you should have heard the flak the President got last year for showing up in a summer suit. Some people just can’t stand a middle ground.
Social conventions change. I can’t think of a good analogy at the moment and don’t want to seem to be over dramatizing or playing the martyr. The past century has seen much bigger changes than ‘you do not have to wear a suit to be seen as professional.’
Suits derive from keeping warm and dry. Military uniforms share a common derivation.
Americans were notorious for having heated buildings, but in some parts of the world you needed to wear a jacket at home (eating dinner) or at work (at the desk) or at church (in the pews).
A well-built dinner-jacket is the most comfortable kind of jacket you can wear at dinner.