When is overdressing acceptable?

[avedwards]

A. They are due to appear in court

B. Attending A Job Interview

C. Going To/ coming from, a wedding

D. Socialising. At least for me that is sometimes (not always) the case.

 

[donCarlos]

I wear a suit 80% of all time. My wardrobe can finally provide me enough combinations for each day of a year, so why not?

When I started going to the college last October, I made a decision to dress up to school each day. Since then, my new classmates saw me without suit only about two times. This may change now, because it´s getting way too hot and we don´t have air condition at school. I don´t wear a tie to school though. I leave it for weekends to the office.

Suit is the only really universal piece of clothes a man can have - wear it and you´ll hardly ever be underdressed. Just keep on mind that a man shall not think about what he´s about to wear for longer than ten minutes

 

[avedwards]

Just keep on mind that a man shall not think about what he´s about to wear for longer than ten minutes

I'm OK then. I don't think I have ever exceeded this time limit. I just choose what I want to wear on the spot depending on weather, formality, and what I feel like.

 

[Paisley]

I suppose I'm always a little overdressed since my minimum standard for what to wear in public is above what most people wear. I don't even own any flip-flops or sweat pants, and to me, a camisole is still underwear. But I don't dress up so much that I stick out and I don't put on the dog just for the sake of it.

 

[Lotta Little]

It depends who is making the call. I think the skirts, cardigans and heels I wear to my office on a daily basis are considered overdressing by many of my coworkers, who wear sweatpants, T-shirts, and Ugg boots.

I think of my wardrobe as classic, tasteful style, but I've had many comments, usually someone cornering me in the lunch room to hiss "We're ALLOWED to wear jeans, you know." I just carry on. I'm not putting on airs, this is me, and I don't care who likes it.

 

[avedwards]

I think of my wardrobe as classic, tasteful style, but I've had many comments, usually someone cornering me in the lunch room to hiss "We're ALLOWED to wear jeans, you know." I just carry on. I'm not putting on airs, this is me, and I don't care who likes it.

My reasoning is similar. People who have a problem with what I wear have a problem with themselves for caring about my clothing.

As for the jeans, I am asked quite often whether I own a pair and why I don't wear them. I tell people that I do own a pair but I find them uninteresting as they lack originality. I personaly have the same attitude to jeans as top hats - I don't wear them myself but I have no problem with others wearing them (though I would have a very high opinion of anyone to wear a topper and not form an opinion of someone in jeans).

 

[Torpedo]

Hi,

Some insightful replies so far.

The "problem" is that casual dress is the norm, it even being the code in many companies and organizations. Almost every person I know who wear suits or suit jackets do so because they are obliged by the dress code of their respective jobs - or because of some special occassion, as has been already remarked upon.

(I must mention an exception - dressier clothes are more habitual among senior citizens, no doubt because this was the norm at times past.)

So, if you wear more dressier clothes because you want to, not because you are obliged by a dress code, you are in the minority and easily stand out, even to the extreme of being considered odd. Not to speak of topping it with a fedora, as some of us do.

So, you will very easily overdress, in the present standards. You must live with this, or succumb and conform to the majority.

 

[ortega76]

(I must mention an exception - dressier clothes are more habitual among senior citizens, no doubt because this was the norm at times past.)

I would most respectfully disagree with you on this. Maybe it's a function of geography, but most of the old folks around me are uber-casual.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

thank you very much BinkieB...

I think that blk/wht photo IS me (okay, maybe my true persona) lounging around our home in one of my evening gowns, listening to Cole Porter or Jerome Kern songs being sung by Fred Astaire playing on the phonograph! Though I'd have a rose in my hand (we grow over 100 antique and modern roses here) or perhaps a cymbidium orchid (favorite flower of my hubby, besides roses) Off camera, in the daytime I'd have a cup of tea on a small side table, in the evening a champagne cocktail! Off the drawing room seen here would be the large ballroom ala' in the film "Age of Innocence". There would be wonderful lavish dinners and grand balls here, with a witty, smart, well dressed group of intimates always invited.

Here is overdressed me today, sporting a Kate Hepburn look relaxing in the drawing room (I do call it that, not a living room) reading a magazine in my favorite chair:

Mrs Chanteuse, Oh I think that's the best photograph you have posted, it looks like something from a "Movie magazine" the star relaxes at home, by her gracious fireplace, you need to commission a portrait to hang over the chimney piece! P>S I think the larger hats suit you very much

 

[JimInSoCalif]

I am a Certified Senior Citizen and really seldom have a need for tailored clothing, but in the past few years I have purchased four suits (all but one is a 3 piece), a couple of blue blazers, and two sport coats.

When I have lunch out with a friend or go to the doctor or dentist, I usually ware either a sport coat or a cardigan and always a necktie.

When I have dinner out, I usually wear a suit or a sport coat and always a tie. At most places I eat I am usually the only one wearing a tie, but I don't care. A sport coat and especially a suit without a tie looks to me that someone did not finish dressing.

I usually eat at middle priced restaurants, but even at rather expensive ones few patrons are dressed as well as the piano player or even the bartenders in my experience.

I don't dress vintage, but most of the clothing that I wear is not much different than what I wore in the 50s and 60s and I would still wear clothes from those years if they fit.

That is the nice thing about traditional clothing for men, it is probably seldom in fashion so one does not have to worry about it being out of fashion. There is a big difference between fashion and style.

I have often wondered for women who worry about fashion who decides what length skirts should be or what the next hot color will be?

Cheers, Jim.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

answer from one woman...

I would agree that there is a big difference between fashion and style Jim. Speaking as a lady who overdresses, I really don't give a hoot about fashion, but having a good sense of style reflected in how I dress and what I choose to wear is important to me. Fashion comes and goes, Style on the other hand is timeless. Anyone can dress in the latest fashion, but it doesn't mean they have style. I decide what skirt lengths I wear by what is suitable and appropriate for my values, my station in life, my age, my body type and the style/image I wish to project to myself and others. I am not a slave to fashion, so what the next hot color is or who started that color trend never enters my mind. I wear my best colors for my coloring, so in that respect they are always my hot colors.

That is the nice thing about traditional clothing for men, it is probably seldom in fashion so one does not have to worry about it being out of fashion. There is a big difference between fashion and style.

I have often wondered for women who worry about fashion who decides what length skirts should be or what the next hot color will be? Cheers, Jim.

 

[Lotta Little]

Hot colors and silhouettes are dictated by trend bureaus operating largely out of Europe. When leggings or ponchos or certain colors (right now-lemon yellow and orange for summer 09, worn with khaki or grey) are cited as THE hot new trend, these companies get the word out a year or more ahead of time,so the merchandise is in stores when people who see these trends in magazines get ready to buy.
But I always do my own thing, too. Ponchos look to me like the wearer crashed through a hammock, and leggings look like hosiery.

 

[Viola]

I sort of love the orange and gray trend, though. And my local stores are all selling '40s-lite style wrap dresses and I'm pretty happy about that.

But when pink was the thing a couple years ago I took a pass on that one - can't wear pink without looking like an Easter Egg.

 

[avedwards]

I may not have the best colour sense (I often wear a grey fedora with a brown leather jacket) but I do not care which colour is fashionable. My colour choices are either grey/blue/black or beige/khaki/light blue, weather dependant.

As for the style of clothes I wear, I usually have some strange combination of 1930s-1960s inspired clothes, though I make sure they look right even if they are from mixed eras.

I agree again that style and fashion are different, style looks good while fashion seldom does these days.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Monochorme

I must say I have never been a into wearing colour, much prefer murkey drab green, fawns, and browns, colours that don't match anything but "Go with" everything!! when i do venture into colour its nothing more shocking than "Bottle green" or "Navy Blue" Purple would be Ok if its a stripe in a black tie (My old school tie)

Ps Mrs chanteause, Hope you dont think me rude but espadrilles would be nicer with slacks perhaps?

 

[Feraud]

I cannot imagine overdressing is any better than underdressing.

 

[ClothesHorse]

Over dress, you bet! My clothes are well tailored and of good quality, they are comfortable! If need be I can remove a tie or a jacket-- It's kinda hard to add them if you didn't bring them. Hell I don't like shoes/boots that don't have leather soles!

Oh and I always, I mean always, have a pocket silk. Picked that up working in a 100+ year old men's clothier. Original family owners.

CH

 

[Inusuit]

Easy to over dress in Wyoming...

My first job for the State of Wyoming, 1976, I attended a meeting in Jackson wearing my three piece suit. Even the District Court Judge was in jeans and a Pendleton shirt. I was obviously the bureaucrat from Cheyenne. Since then I make an effort to dress to fit in with the people with whom I'm meeting. That's often clean Carhartt work pants, boots, and an appropriate shirt - a Pendleton in winter, collared broadcloth of some sort in summer. Since I don't know day to day when I'll go in the field to a construcion site, my daily attire is similar, with mud boots in the Jeep.

 

[Viola]

I had to Google what a Pendleton shirt is. :eusa_doh:

 

[Sefton]

I cannot imagine overdressing is any better than underdressing.

Yes, very true. Of course I want people to think of me as someone who is well dressed, but I really don't want others to think I'm putting on airs or intentionally trying to make them feel uncomfortable. I'm certain that I've read something along those lines in old etiquette books. Emily post perhaps?