Fruit Of The Loom Peoples Republic TV Spot

[RondoHatton]

The Constant Oracle (TV), always on in the background, caught my eye with a TV commercial for Fruit Of The Loom which just did not sit right with me, and perhaps some of you may have reacted the same?
The gist of the ad is, how wonderful it would all be to shuck business attire, suits, uniforms, etc., and be garbed in casual (and sold by FTL of course) soft undergarments. Scenes of people ecstatically removing jackets, etc, for FTL wear. Well, to me, they all had the appearance of PRISONERS, or INSTITUTIONALIZED PATIENTS in some kind of nightmare new world.

 

[Edward]

It does bug me when I see people denigrate the suit. Everything has its place, but still... a while back, one of the stylists in an evening paper here in London praised a particular designer's suit designs (it was during Paris or London or NYC Fashion week) for their "vintage style" which "doesn't make you look like you're gonig to a wedding." In effect, suits = uncomfortable and geeky clothes that people only wear when they have to. It seems to me that all too many people have this narrow minded attitude. Far too many think they're being clever by avoiding a suit like the plague.

Fashion has always been cyclical, though. It has to swing back in the direction of more formal modes of dress at some point - even if for no reason other than that that's the new rebellion, or people simply become tired of dressing down. Maybe we'll see men's clothing evolve in the way women's has... it has always seemed to me that in my lifetime, men's clothes have been very polarised between formal / casual / slobbing round the house, whereas women's options are much more of a spectrum from ultra formal through to uber casual. Maybe if men's clothing takes on that spectrum range again at some future date we'll see things improve.

Then of course, there's the issue of celebrity role models. most role models for the mainstream contemporary man are almost always top be seen in very casual wear a la David Beckham. On the rare occasions when they do wear a suit, a lot of them look wholly out of place and very uncomfortable in it. Maybe if we had better suit wearing celebs this would have an impact...