A gripe on fashion-guest blogger

My guest blogger is not Lloyd Boston, but I do find him highly
entertaining all the same...

I am getting old.  In terms of years, I am middle aged.  In terms of attitude, I have been old all of my life, at least to a degree.  Maybe it is a function of age, or maybe it is a function of declining standards, but I am disgusted with sloppy people.  Fewer and fewer people dress decently in public anymore.  Dressing decently does not mean necessarily mean dressing up, although on some occassions to be dressed decently is to be dressed up.  Church is one of those occassions.  On other occassions dressing up is not required.  A working man is allowed to dress like a working man.  (I will abstain from discussing the dressing habits of "working girls" :-)  Work clothes, even if dirty and torn, are not inherently indecent because hard and dirty work is honorable.  Sloppiness is a different matter and poverty is not an excuse.  In times past, few were poorer than sharecroppers.  A sharecropper's best clothes may have been his cleanest overalls with the fewest patches.  In that case, wearing them meant wearing the best that he had and in doing so he was dressed decently.  The best he had, whether it was overalls or a suit, was what he wore to church, to town, or to any event that required such dress.  In fact, poor folks were often self conscious about dressing as well as possible.  Being poor does not preclude being proud.  Economic poverty is not inherently shameful.  Trashiness is.  Today, however, in the apparent quest for casual and comfortable, we have turned trashiness, and thereby shame, into a living art form.  Two of the most popular sizes for clothing are too large and too small.  Boys wear the tops of their baggy, oversized pants below their butt cheeks with the bottoms puddling around their feet.  Skinny pants might look fine on thin women, but they look ridiculous on men, no matter how thin.  Those most likely to wear sweat clothes to the mall are those who are most in need of wearing them for their intended purpose instead.  Hoodies are an abomination.  It is nearly impossible to wear them without looking like you just held up a liquor store.  Flip flops should be for flopping on the beach, not on the floor of the store where I buy my groceries.  Keep your toe jam to yourself.  I am not trying to be the fashion police.  On the contrary, fashion is the problem.  We would be better off with a lot less fashion and a lot more class and taste. 

Dressing decently used to be a sign of self respect.  Dressing sloppily was more of a sign of rebellion.  It was what hippies and ne'er do wells did.  Today, dressing decently is almost a revolutionary act in a society that seems to idolize slovenliness and irresponsibilty.  Viva la Revolution.

-my grumpy "old" anonymous friend (who of course I find highly entertaining)

Lloyd Boston's new book is great, by the way, if you need some help outta that hoodie ;-) Farr and Garciaalso offer great go-to-daily style manuals.