Ten rules for being well-dressed: to follow, or to flout?

[Mary Chambers]

There's a programme on Channel 4, Tuesday 10 PM, called Fabulous Fashionistas, that may be of interest to a very few of us. It's about women in their 70s, 80s and 90s who have their own distinctive style (which doesn't involve Botox or surgery, thank heavens). Gillian Lynne and Baroness Trumpington are in it, among others. I shall watch it if I remember, though I shall get irritated if they go on about 'refusing to grow old', as if getting older was some sort of evil thing one has to apologise for.

[Richard Tarleton]

Does anyone else know those traditional gents outfitters, generally in prosperous country market towns, that have sections seemingly dedicated to the sartorial requirements of rural land agents and antique dealers? To whit, yellow corduroy trousers (or red for antique dealers), mustard coloured waistcoats, flat tweed caps, Tattersall shirts, etc.? (As well as waxed jackets, garments rendered redundant by Goretex but which hang in there by virtue of the look they represent?)

[amateur51]

Does anyone else know those traditional gents outfitters, generally in prosperous country market towns, that have sections seemingly dedicated to the sartorial requirements of rural land agents and antique dealers? To whit, yellow corduroy trousers (or red for antique dealers), mustard coloured waistcoats, flat tweed caps, Tattersall shirts, etc.? (As well as waxed jackets, garments rendered redundant by Goretex but which hang in there by virtue of the look they represent?)

Your description could be Cordings to a t, RT

http://www.cordings.co.uk/menswear/trousers

[french frank]

There's a programme on Channel 4, Tuesday 10 PM, called Fabulous Fashionistas, that may be of interest to a very few of us. It's about women in their 70s, 80s and 90s who have their own distinctive style (which doesn't involve Botox or surgery, thank heavens).

My style is to have a small selection of drab clothes which I wear and wear until they are unfit for anything except to go in the textile recycling box. Then I try to buy something exactly the same as I've just thrown out. And I can't remember what anyone else was wearing two minutes after I've left them.

[amateur51]

My style is to have a small selection of drab clothes which I wear and wear until they are unfit for anything except to go in the textile recycling box. Then I try to buy something exactly the same as I've just thrown out. And I can't remember what anyone else was wearing two minutes after I've left them.

Same here, french frank. I'm quite good at spotting when someone has a new hairstyle or new spex though.

I was once the only person at a meeting to spot that a regular attender of said meetings had shaved off his moustache of many years standing

"Oh, did you used to have a moustache then?" someone else ventured.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Kilts at weddings seem to be the thing at the moment (personally I don't think you should wear them unless you have Scottish heritage, but men do look rather lovely in them!)

Anna: a sadly narrow view if I may say so We in Cornwall have a tartan (yes, really - we are after all one of the six Celtic nations).

I attended a wedding here this summer where the bride's father wore the kilt and did not generate the slightest antagonism from a Scottish guest who came in his. This despite the fact that bride's father, though resident in Cornwall some 13 years, comes - still very audibly - from Yorkshire and his route to Cornwall was via Basingstoke (not one of the six Celtic nations...)!

[Flosshilde]

Is there only the one?

Absolutely - that's why real pashmina shawls are so expensive - they can only make one a year, after the goat has moulted.

[Stillhomewardbound]

FUNERAL ETIQUETTE

I always feel that full black should be the preserve of the immediate bereaved. Sombre darks & greys, ideally, and dark ties for the gentlemen, but only black ties by the nearest and dearest.

To turn up to a funeral looking like a gangster at a Kray funeral is rather to intrude on the grief of the genuinely bereaved.

Younger attendees - I despair to see funerals when young people are in jeans and shirtsleeves, maybe with an anorak. They'd dress up plenty quick for a night on the town, so they ought to be able to get it right for a funeral.


MAYOR'S BANQUET/CENOTAPH/MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

The overcoat is all but disappeared but I believe a dark, long overcoat should be in the wardrobe of all public representatives. I think when David Cameron was due to make his first appearance at the Cenotaph ceremony a special shopping trip had to be made to get him a coat. (But, please, let's not get on to Michael Foot here).

Worst of all was to see John Major rushing out of No.10, late for a Lord Mayor's banquet, with no overcoat and in tails, the sleeves of which were ridiculously short. To all intents he looked like the butler being rushed down to the local pharmacy in the family limo to obtain some remedy for his bibulous master.


ASCOT/GARDEN PARTIES

Top Hots - My preference is for black, beaver silk, and never grey. Has something of the cad or lounge-lizard about it.

As for the wearing of it: NEVER on the back of the head. A little forward and tilted to the right (or left, if left-handed as one will be raising it occasionally for passing ladies and superior personages), but not too much or one is in danger of looking like a rake.

And, gentleman, no matter how good the day, the tie and collar never to be undone. By the same token, ladies, never, but ever, would a true lady arrive at Waterloo Station in stockinged feet clutching ones's shoes in one hand and the dregs of a bottle of champagne in the other.

[mangerton]

To whit, yellow corduroy trousers (or red for antique dealers), mustard coloured waistcoats, flat tweed caps, Tattersall shirts, etc.? (As well as waxed jackets, garments rendered redundant by Goretex but which hang in there by virtue of the look they represent?)

This is reminiscent of the look favoured by my housemaster 45 years ago. In addition (as facial hair has been mentioned recently) he had tufts of hair on his cheekbones.

[Nick Armstrong]

Top Hots - My preference is for black, beaver silk

A sequence of words that got me boggling slightly, shb...

[jayne lee wilson]

Absolutely - that's why real pashmina shawls are so expensive - they can only make one a year, after the goat has moulted.

Which is why I only ever admire my white one, and wear the buttermilk one even as it artfully falls to bits... (see 120).

(Do love that fashionista-emphasised "real", Flossie...)

***

Fashion Industry is - wasteful, deceitful, damaging, mindless leading the mindless, religiosubstitutional, x-factor-materialist-aspirational etc., etc.,...

But fashion-small-f is a lot of fun. Clothes, or looks, or your personal look - aren't Froth at all, of course. They convey a message to the people you see or meet. You may think "my drab/scruffy/old clothes say "I don't care how I look, I go deeper"." The Other People (especially if you meet them for lunch) might think, "she doesn't care what I think of how she looks, she disrespects me, perhaps herself". Neither of you may be consciously aware of all this. You may want to avoid this trap, but how? And living in a culture you can't control it...

Male birds display to females. Best display wins sex and breeding. They get old, lose the contest stop breeding and die. Go figure.

In hospital for lifethreatening brain surgery and for months after, I lost all interest in how I looked. Later it came back more keenly than ever.

I love clothes, love dressing up, love putting a new look together. Then suddenly I hate it**... extreme experiences aside, this doesn't usually happen with Cats, or watching the birds in the garden, or with... Music.

**I always have default outfits - summer default, winter default etc.

[french frank]

You may think "my drab/scruffy/old clothes say "I don't care how I look, I go deeper"." The Other People (especially if you meet them for lunch) might think, "she doesn't care what I think of how she looks, she disrespects me, perhaps herself". Neither of you may be consciously aware of all this. You may want to avoid this trap, but how?

I don't want to avoid any "trap" because I don't think that. If other people think about my clothes, it's up to them. It's not that I have any thoughts that 'my time is better spent than your time', but I shall spend my time, money and thought on what I want to spend them on. Other people are quite free to do the same: I shan't judge (in fact - and I do apologise for this - I probably shan't notice unless someone is wearing something weird or looks like A Edmondson in The Young Ones). Just because one person thinks about what their clothes 'say', it isn't necessarily a characteristic of the entire human race.

I have a Useful Jacket which cost 5SF about 15 years ago. I had leather cuffs put on it - not as a fashion touch - but because I had to keep cutting the threads off. I hope I die before I have to put it to rest in the recyclying bin. Thomas à Kempis calls this an 'Inordinate Affection' but I think it's just a matter between me and my jacket.

I now see I am quite off-topic on this thread as it is about rules for being well-dressed. (I had a friend once and we both agreed that if we had to wear special clothes to go somewhere, we didn't want to go - so I wouldn't be lunching with anyone who made me feel uncomfortable about how I was dressed).

[vinteuil]

I had a friend once and we both agreed that if we had to wear special clothes to go somewhere, we didn't want to go - so I wouldn't be lunching with anyone who made me feel uncomfortable about how I was dressed.

"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. " Thoreau, 'Walden'.

[Mary Chambers]

I think I always notice what people are wearing, and a lot of other things about them, too. Appearance, including clothes, hair etc, tells me a lot about someone, and about whether I'll get on with them. If a woman has obviously spent hours on clothes, hair and make-up, I almost certainly won't enjoy her company. On the other hand unwashed hair, dirty fingernails and so on are very offputting in either sex. I think the ideal is enough effort to be acceptable and perhaps individual, but not enough to be artificial.

[MrGongGong]

"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. " Thoreau, 'Walden'.

"Never trust a man who wears a tie while gardening"

Appearance, including clothes, hair etc, tells me a lot about someone, and about whether I'll get on with them.

This singer , for example



Is a softly spoken gentle Norwegian man with a love of fine wines (yes, he really is )