For those of us who have watched for decades now the ebb and flow of the tides of society, people seem to fecklessly follow the trends instituted by unseen hands. Hemlines on women's skirts rise and fall, high necked blouses to casual peasant with ample decolletage displayed, their shoes go from chunky, staggering platform affairs to sleek and sexy stilettos. Men's suits favor wide and then narrow lapels, thick and then thin ties, their shoes move from wingtips to ankle boots. Hats fall in and out of favor for all, as do the riot of colors from somber earth tones to shocking pinks and ghastly greens. It is a predictable cycle of about twenty years.
Some people buy new wardrobes at each change of season. Every year. Why? Did they get fat? Lose weight? Did the clothes suddenly make them ugly when they were fabulous 90 days ago?
Who decides for you what you are to wear?
For me, I've always worn jeans, safety boots, and T-shirts. My idea of being dressed up is wearing a shirt with a collar and jeans without holes or thin spots. If I'm feeling extravagant, it is black jeans, a nice shirt with buttons all the way up the front, a bolo tie, a western cut charcoal gray corduroy jacket, and cowboy boots. And maybe some Lagerfeld cologne.
Zero fashion sense. It isn't important to me.
I remember going to Radio Shack when I was in college for a job interview. I arrived in clean clothes. Nothing fancy. No suit. No tie. Just black slacks and a white shirt. Black shoes left over from my time in the Air Force ROTC in high school. The interviewer was an older guy and he started out by criticizing how I had chosen to arrive dressed for the interview. Maybe he thought he was helping me. I just thought he was an ass. I stood, thanked him and informed him I was in error for having believed that they were interested in someone who knew something about electronics.The door swung shut with a bang while he sputtered behind me outraged that anyone would walk out on Mr. Three Piece Suit.
Who made him think that the surface was the most important consideration? Didn't he ever hear the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover"?
I showed up dressed the same way at Fairchild Industries the next week and was hired on the spot.
What did they see that Mr. Three Piece Suit didn't?
How many of you have headed out to a night spot where there's a dress code? There's dozens of things that you can do that can be just as entertaining or even more so that don't demand you dress in a particular fashion. Those places need your money more than you need to be there. Yet, you obey them, dress and comport yourself in a certain way, and still have to pay them for the privilege of being allowed in, and then you have to spend even more for refreshments. Why?
Think about so many things that you do. Why do you do them? Why did anyone behave the way they did in the examples above?
People are trained. Just like a dog or a monkey.
Someone got to them and made them play a role. The trainers were so good at their job, most people didn't even notice they were being programmed.
3 comments:
...yep, jeans and t-shirts here too, i don't understand the vanity issues that plague people...BDUs and t-shirts are work attire...don't own a suit, have a vest and tie along with several 511 tac pants for the spiffy occasions...dressed this way 30(+)yrs now, hell some of my jeans are twenty yrs old(no shit...501 levis...my fly is buttoned...lol)
...don't go any where that i gotta pay to get in(never have, never will)
501's! Button fly, no less. It is so odd how so many of us are alike. None of my 501's have made it past the 10 year mark. I think the oldest pair I have now are about 6. I wore BDUs for a while at work. All the pockets were nice to have for holding tools, but I was asked to stop wearing them because they appeared "threatening". That was about the time they took away our black work shirts because they were also "threatening". This was back in the early 90's when the propaganda machine was in overdrive regarding militias. LOL!
Shorts, "fishing" shirts (T shirts are too hot and take too long to dry) and Crocs. Wrangler jeans for those three cold days per year we have. Screw fashion, I choose comfort! To dress up I change into a clean ball cap and boat shoes, heh heh heh...
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