No white before Memorial Day?

It says a lot about society that this is an issue. : I saw them talking about it on Today. If the weather is nice, wear white. We are in the 80s here in the South. It might as well be spring. Wear white. Comparatively, she is better dressed than most celebs whether she wears white or not.

 

I do not recall advocating showing up at a formal dinner party in cut-off jeans and a t-shirt.

 

Do not wear white pants if you have the squirts.

 

Once again, space finds the common ground.

 

Don't you all find discussion among men about wearing white before Memorial Day to be a little ... you know ...

 

I'd feel silly in white pants no matter the time of year. I remember my dad saying he worked with a guy who wore white suits, and when he walked past, they'd yell at him, "Here comes the ice cream man!"

But, look, the "rules" are just to help us avoid humiliation. How would I have known not to wear stripes and plaids together if someone hadn't taught me?

 

What if you're a football official?

 

Frank, first of all, my fuck you to the fashion police stands, and if you take it personally, that's your problem not mine. It was not directed at anyone specifically, not you, not anyone, and you know it.

I stand firmly by my point that anyone who is judging someone based on whether they wear white before Memorial Day is acting like, or is, an asshole.

I don't care how long the "rule" -- as if Moses came down from the mountain with the 11th Fashion Commandment that codified all this shit -- has existed. As mentioned earlier, if that's the rule you want to follow yourself, have at it, but past that, mind your own damn business about what other people are doing.

Moreover, if criticizing a dopey fashion rule that exists as much as a method to ridicule others (as is the original point of this thread) as it does as a personal guideline for your own tastes makes me a condescending, judgemental, unmannered slob than so be it. But I won't be the one guffawing under my breath because someone committed the unforgivable sin of wearing white before Memorial Day. And no, Frank, I'm not accusing you of that, but you know damn well that are those that do.

Does that mean I advocate someone wearing a polo shirt and jeans to a job interview? Of course not. By all means dress appropriately for the right occasion, and don't look like a slob at work.

But when dress appropriately = inane rules that take away someone's freedom to express themselves on what dress appropriately means, then I will say fuck you to the fashion police until the end of time.



P.S. I haven't an earthly idea why this is become a cause celebre for me. I also don't have any white pants, I have a very light tan pair, but nothing white.

 

Well, you could make the argument that wearing a white suit (hello, Tom Wolfe) in January isn't appropriate.

Or a woman wearing a low cut dress to a funeral isn't appropriate.

Is that the fashion police or just basic common sense?

 

Yet you expressed no moral outrage when would-be hipsters were writing here the other day that pleats and cuffs make people look like old men. Now I couldn't give a shit, personally, as I have no white trousers either, I have suits of both ilk in the cuffs and pleats departments and when I "get fuckin' haircut," I make the barber laugh when I request "the same non-style." But just about everybody makes some kind of judgment about fashion (unless their mommy still dresses them). People get their undies in a wad only when their kind of fashion is criticized. So there is a phoniness when people criticize "the rules." Because they have their rules, too, if they wish to diss traditional fashion in favor of looking exactly like every other "non-conformist" in after-school study hall.

My interest in fashion was learned the hard way. In 1985 I had a squirrelly girlfriend who kept pissing me off by condescendingly calling me "a diamond in the rough" and making cute jokes about my attire (and it didn't take me long to a-tire of her). But the final straw was a year later when, at age 26, I interviewed for a job at one of the nation's best newspapers and endured some laughing remarks from the bastard SE about my cheap suit. And I realized I was trying to live in a world in which I lacked one of the rule books. So I learned a bit and found I enjoyed wearing decent clothes and that they were no less comfortable than crap.

That world has changed, to an extent. People now know it's not true that "clothes make the man" and they try to say the politically correct things. Still, the reaction to seeing a slob is a reflex. The rules are ingrained in some of us, and we are no more judgmental than people like you, just less in denial about it. The question was "is there a rule?" It wasn't whether Meredith is a worthless moron for breaking it.

 

1. Fashion police. Who gives a damn? I don't know how many people I've seen wear white suits in January, I've never really been bothered to pay any attention, but if I did see it, my first reaction wouldn't be, "Oh my God, that is absolutely atrocious that they're wearing white in January! How uncouth!" To my point, these "rules" exist as much to ridicule others as it is a guideline.

2. I lean towards common sense there, but the same anti-fashion police arguments apply if you want to apply them. At the end of the day, it's really none of your business how someone dresses.

 

Just as in writing, it's OK to break fashion rules if you mean to and do it with flair.

It's embarrassing to break a rule and not even know what the rules are.