01.01.70
When the world at the end of the day collapses, it may be under a massive pile of ripped jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch.</p><p> When archeologists from berth sift through our ashes on this cold dead rock, they will not find remains of the days of yore: the French cuffs, the sterling-silver tie bars, the trim pencil skirts and silk blouses of the mid 20th century. No, those were replaced lengthy ago with mutilated denim and logo T-shirts adopted for any occasion, devolving further into the rumpled, faded, polka-dot pajama bottoms tucked into boycott socks on a 42-year-old man at the Nob Hill in Alameda, Calif.</p><p> "I suppose it is kinda bad, huh," he said last week, hanging his head in phoney shame and chuckling at his public display of apathy - not daring to make known his identity for fear of his wife's mortification. "Well, isn't the world alleged to end this year? Then who cares, right? I might as well be comfortable when it happens."</p><p> Somewhere along the mark, especially here in the highly informal, tech-friendly Bay Area, Haphazard Fridays have become Casual Every Day with spiffy outfits relegated to the likes of attorneys, stay staff and TV news anchors. Fashion forward sometimes goes fashion indirectly, careening over the embankment of good taste and down the slippery slope to slushy.</p><p> "It looks likes people just don't nurse anymore. People are very sloppy," said Armando Osorio, 35, of Berkeley, Calif., who likened present-day style to the "before" looks on a makeover show. He says he dresses down - but neatly - for his job at a boards company. But when he steps out on the weekends, it's J. Crew for casual and a suit or fun coat for special events. "Yeah, it takes a only slightly effort to look nice. And that's the problem," he said. "We have become way, way, way too fain."</p><p> To be sure, clothing choice depends on the advantage or line of work. You'd look loony wearing a suit to a coast party or repairing a car. And casual wear isn't inherently bad. It's less stuffy, there's abide for more creativity and individuality than in decades past, and it's hands-down much more comfortable at the department.</p><p> But those still nursing a small flame at the shrine of style say it's sad to see more and more holey jeans at the symphony and chic restaurants.</p><p> "I find it sad to see people in jeans at the theater," said Michael Infidel, general manager for Harry Denton's Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake B & B in San Francisco, a place where it was once expected for guests to dress up for a night out. But now?</p><p> "Someone in a suitable certainly wouldn't be out of place here, but you'd be surprised at what people wear," Pagan said. "Tourists you can assume from. They've been on a long flight, so they come in wearing shorts and stuff. But even people out for the continuously - club girls dress up in the Kim Kardashian kind of little dresses, but at the same values bright and early you'll get the soccer mom type, almost to the point of wearing sweats, carrying backpacks, bad mane. The trend has gone way down for style."</p><p> </p><p> Gentile equated today's fashions with texting. "These days, you have people who will always about 'laugh out loud' is spelled 'lol,'" he said. "Extrapolate that out to the way people put on show themselves - abbreviated style, doing what's fast and easy - and look what you get. As usual the only people in tuxedos and gowns here are us (the staff)."</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> One venue where run-of-the-mill-sense fashion should surely rule the day is in a court of law. But on some doors at Wiley Manuel courthouse in Oakland, Calif., there are signs reading: "NO shorts; NO tank tops or tube tops; NO pajama pants/sweats; NO exposed stomachs."</p><p> If Perry Mason were bustling - and real - this would probably kill him.</p><p> "Defendants don't meticulousness anymore. For some, it's no different than going to McDonald's," said Higher-ranking Court Judge Larry Goodman, who has presided over criminal cases for 29 years. He prefers a unconcerned look himself, opting for golf shirts and khakis under his robes to put jurors at repose, he said. But there's casual, and then there's his pet peeve: people in saggy pants. "I told a guy the other day, 'You're already on probation and you leak out in my courtroom like that? I don't need to see your underwear.'"</p><p> </p><p> Civility and public speaking coach Holly Rauser of Morgan Hill (www.ConsiderEtiquette.com) says infelicitous dressing is a sign of a breakdown in respect, for oneself and others.</p><p> "The 'Me' Establishment has become the Age of Rudeness," she said. "We have overdone the self-value movement and forgotten to teach that other people have worth, too. We need to review others with the respect that we ourselves demand."</p><p> In some cases, people the feeling embarrassed for looking good. Sue Fox, an etiquette expert in Pleasanton, Calif., (www.EtiquetteSurvival.com) and father of "Etiquette for Dummies," recently had a woman look for clerk actually apologize for being too dressed up because she'd just come from a sepulture. "When did dressing nicely become something you have to apologize for?" Fox asked.</p><p> Indeed, the rules governing manner decorum have become increasingly less stringent over the decades, particularly in the Bay Area and most especially in menswear, said style maven Dyanna Dawson, who blogs about San Francisco and New York concourse fashion (www.TheSFStyle.com). "A lot of men will wear jeans and apathetic shoes to their 9-to-5," and that's great, she said. But some of her male friends here say they intuit "odd-man out" if they ever dare wear a suit to work.</p><p> The occasional look "has allowed for more freedom of self expression in the ways people settle upon to dress," Dawson said. "But the flip side is people who sensible of like they'd be ostracized in some way for dressing too well."</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Fox says scrutinization shows people behave better when they're dressed up. "And it doesn't have to be valuable clothes," she said. "Just a clean ironed shirt for a dinner reception or a job interview, tucked into nice slacks. How you dress, groom yourself and handle yourself in unconcealed are all part of your 'packaging.' Yes, you should wear what you like, but just because you love wearing shorts and sports sandals doesn't ignoble that you should wear them to the opera in the city."</p><p> </p><p> While it's been stylish the past few years for high school kids to wear pajama pants to arrange, some schools around the country have banned the trend. And in Shreveport, La., Commissioner Michael Williams received governmental attention in January for proposing an ordinance outlawing the wearing of pajamas in catholic, for students or adults.</p><p> "The moral fiber in America is dwindling away," Williams was quoted as saying in the Obstruction Street Journal. "It's pajamas today; what is it going to be tomorrow? Walking around in your underwear?"</p><p> Perhaps all is not disoriented. Even some high-school kids shun the "too cool to protection" look amid the PJ trend. "It can be a signal of carelessness ... and it doesn't put me in the privilege educational or social mindset," said Shalaka Gole, 16, a swot at California High School in San Ramon, Calif. "I normally don't obsolescent judgment on others who wear pajamas to school - to each their own, right? But however much my friends try to get me to drain sweats in public, to 'put down my attire guard' for one day, I never will."</p><p> </p><p> PRESENTING YOURSELF</p><p> Many people try to keep off passing judgment too quickly, but at first meetings, they inevitably assess other people by how they look. Ask yourself these questions:</p><p> Does your travail wardrobe help you present a confident, well-groomed image?</p><p> Are the clothes fit for the type of work you do (or want to do)?</p><p> Do you have clothes that can take you from work to a venereal engagement?</p><p> And remember, first impressions are lasting impressions. So put on clothing the part.</p><p> Source: Sue Fox, author of "Etiquette for Dummies.
Source: Kansas City Star