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Where do you wear yours?

Matt Deckard

Man of Action
Messages
10,045
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A devout capitalist in Los Angeles CA.
I get alot of looks from wearing my suit.. I also get alot of people asking me if I'm going to a wedding or a funeral. I worn one to Disneyland and I've worn one to walk around the street of Paris while living out of a hostel. I just like suits.

It is said that the 50's were the last decade where men wore suits to baseball games... I still where one to baseball games, and hockey games.

What places do you wear your suits? places that most people would find a suit out of place?
 

Robert Conway

A-List Customer
Messages
324
Location
Here and there...
It will be a cold day in hell, before I can wear a suit to my job, without someone questioning my sanity. Hell, a clean, ironed shirt provokes a barrage of question in the vain of: "So, how did your interview go?"

Los Angeles in general may be among the worst places on the planet, for wearing a suit. The east coast, New York city in particular, is a different story. You can walk through Manhattan dressed to the nines, and no one will bat an eye, except perhaps to mug you. I wonder what Washington D.C. is like...

In my experience the deal breaker is the fedora. The minute you put it on, you are in the eye of the public no longer just someone wearing a suit, but there is something else going on and the alarm bells go off.

Oddly enough if it is pouring down rain, or if you are in the blazing heat of the desert, people don't seem to notice as much.

I think it simply has to do with the fact that the public associate the fedora so closely with the 30's and 40's, that in their mind you go from wearing a suit, to wearing a 'costume' and at that point they think you are ready for the funny farm.

So, that leaves me in L.A., with a limited selection of places.

Restaurants on the West-side, particularly the better ones in the evening, are pretty smooth sailing. The biggest problem becomes the girl you are taking, because half of them will think you've flipped your lid, if you show up dressed like Adolphe Menjou. On the other hand, many of them cherish the opportunity to get dressed up and paint the town red. So, I toss it out there ahead of time. More often than not, they go for it.

There are plenty of screenings, at various old movie theaters, that are a perfect excuse. The Getty is another place, as is the Santa Anita track, the Disney Symphony Hall and the L.A. opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (which has some of the worst accustics on the planet).

You can get away with it in Beverly Hills. Not because everyone dresses so well (except for the Japanese), but in that part of town, eccentrics and nut jobs are a dime a dozen and you just blend it.

In my experience, Europe is a whole different story. In general, it's less of an issue.


Robert Conway
 

Hemingway Jones

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
6,099
Location
Acton, Massachusetts
Relatively, Boston is a pretty friendly hat town. I rarely get negetive comments. I wear vintage ties, fedoras and suits to work. I work in financial services, so a suit is required.

There are quite a few fellows who wear hats to their offices, but they are usually Aussie hats.

Yesterday, I went to visit Daisy in the hospital and I wore my Bill's khakis with 30's style J Crew boots, a white shirt with a vintage tie, a fair isle sweater over it and my horsehide Wested over that; a rather vintage look. Later, I threw on my Adventurebilt in gray and no one said a word.

The only negetive comments I have ever received were from the hordes of college age girls that live where I do, between Boston University and Boston College. Now, that is pretty harsh criticism to a man's vanity when the college aged girls are critical, but they are hardly the most discerning demographic to take your fashion prompts from.

I wear at least a blazer to the movies or to the museum. If I go shopping, I usually wear a suit, but then I am usually shopping for suits.

I have decided that I am too old now to worry what anyone else thinks. It's better to be overdressed that underdressed.
 
I wear my suits every day, every where. Only the patterned (glen plaid etc.) suits and the more spectacular 30s suits get any mention from people passing - though now the undergraduate students have returned, comments are increasing. They seem to need to impress each other by attempting to belittle others. They've learned quite quickly that i'll be grading their exams, so the comments are dying away ...

I agree with Robert, in that putting on the lid (any lid - not necessarily a fedora) changes things. I was passed by a certain gent yesterday in my new 30s brown herringbone suit with a beret on. He passed me and said, guffawing, to his companion: "That guy looks like a Bosnian". A Bosnian! How specific is that!

I only really remove my jacket to work in the Lab.

bk
 

flat-top

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,772
Location
Palookaville, NY
Being a manager in a department store, you'd think that wearing a suit wouldn't inspire so many comments, but I still hear "Why are you so dressed up?" when I DO wear one. Maybe it's because I only wear vintage suits, and I just LOOK like I'm trying harder. I'm so used to being over dressed wherever I go, that I'm used to the reactions.
flat-top
 

Flitcraft

One Too Many
Messages
1,037
I knew you were a mad scientist...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Baron Kurtz
I only really remove my jacket to work in the Lab.
bk


...intent on world domination.
__________________

Dang!

Wish I could get me a job as a Mad Scientist!
Whats that pay?
 

Briscoeteque

One of the Regulars
Messages
224
Location
Lewiston, Maine
A suit? Any weekend night or any weekday night I'm socializing anyway, and with my new schedule, that doesn't happen as often. However, I'm always in at least a sportcoat and tie (the suits are all vintage, only a few sportcoats are). Yeah, I get some looks or whatever, but more compliments (esp. from dolls). People caused more of a fuss last night when I went to bush my teeth inbetween my day suit and my night suit and so was wearing a t-shirt for the first time in public.
 
Hahahahahaha ...

... Hahahahahaha

Paddy may be able to confirm: That looks just like my dad. He's a watchmaker and has these magnifier things that attach to the front of his glasses so he can do the intricate work. just like the ones in that pic. He used to embarrass me terribly as a child when he'd step into the front of the shop to give me the key for the house.

And he has crazy hair pretty much like that.

bk
 

jake_fink

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,279
Location
Taranna
Robert Conway said:
The biggest problem becomes the girl you are taking, because half of them will think you've flipped your lid, if you show up dressed like Adolphe Menjou.

steichen_vintage2_b.jpg


Now that's funny. I'd think you'd flipped your lid too, stepping out in a topper and spats. I suspect Menjou spent more time having his moustache manicured than most men now spend doing their laundry. So, good luck with that.
 

jake_fink

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,279
Location
Taranna
I'm a prof at a college, and a suit is a little too much for my students and collegues to handle, but a blazer and tie seems not to be commented on. I wear a suit to the track, out to dinner with my wife and - depending on the bar - when I hit the town with my pals. If I waited for weddings and funerals I'd have to start making matches and poisoning drinks if I was to get any wear at all out of my wardrobe.
 

Roger

A-List Customer
Another Supreme Court Opinion

It is said that the 50's were the last decade where men wore suits to baseball games... I still where one to baseball games, and hockey games.
I believe that suits or blazers were required to be worn by men 18 and over to the baseball games. Then in 1954 or 1955 some slob tried to get into Ebbets Field with a t-shirt and dungarees and was denied access. He and his attorney's sued and it went all the way up the Warren Court. Warren Court ruled in his favor saying that although it was a private enterprise the individuals right to dress sloppily overrulled the company's right to set up a dress code.
Even in Las Vegas and Reno casino's and clubs until the late 1960's suits and ties were required to be worn. If you didn't have one, they lent you one to wear while in the casino. Now, anyone can go into a casino in Atlantic City, Las Vegas or an Indian and be dressed more sloppily than the busboys.
Teachers in schools had to wear a necktie until about 1970. Looking back at old year books you can see when the dress code and the decline of education began.:cheers1: :cool2:
I work for an insurance company so a suit every day is part of my ensemble.
 

Lincsong

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,907
Location
Shining City on a Hill
A businessman not in a suit is an insult to;

the company he represents, the product he sells and the customer he serves. Nothing burns me more than when I see techie billionaires like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates wearing dungarees, t-shirts etc. to launch new products and official events. At least Oracle's Larry Ellison dresses to the nines. But then he's from Buffalo, NY and the other two are West Coast brats. I always wear a suit to work. A blazer goes with the movies and dinner in anything above a diner. A few days ago, I was in a five star restaurant and the valets and busboys were dressed better than the clientel.
 

Robert Conway

A-List Customer
Messages
324
Location
Here and there...
jake_fink said:
steichen_vintage2_b.jpg


Now that's funny. I'd think you'd flipped your lid too, stepping out in a topper and spats. I suspect Menjou spent more time having his moustache manicured than most men now spend doing their laundry. So, good luck with that.


Ok, maybe he's a bit of an extreme example...
;)
 

Robert Conway

A-List Customer
Messages
324
Location
Here and there...
Lincsong said:
A few days ago, I was in a five star restaurant and the valets and busboys were dressed better than the clientel.

That drives me absolutely nuts.

Anyone seen that episode of The Sophranos where Tony is eating in a restaurant and two tables away from him, there's a guy wearing a baseball cap?
 

geo

Registered User
Messages
384
Location
Canada
Where do you wear your suits?

Outside the house. Although I work in an office, I'm the only one to wear a suit. I don't get comments, only people staring with their mouths open. It does not bother me that I'm the only one to wear a suit, when people come to work practically in their underwear and barefoot. I'm OK. Even, for the first time I've seen co-workers wearing a jacket, after they saw me wearing suit and tie every day. Maybe I'll turn the tide the other way.
 

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