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

[David-G]

Of "don'ts" so far not mentioned, I never got the one about not wearing socks with sandals, ahem.

I wouldn't dream of not wearing socks, sandals or no sandals.

[Serial_Apologist]

(I'm not "channeling" OXOboy honest ) and how things have improved as a result IMV
About time we stopped daft schools telling their pupils that they have to dress like 1950's office workers, try going to a university on a day when they are doing interviews lots of awkward teenagers in suits "SUITS ON 18 year olds ???? " being interviewed by staff in comfortable clothes.

Which reminds me of a rant perpetrated by me on the old BBC forum about a visit to St Sprees on the lookout for a new jacket, to be confronted by a single aisle of dark grey maybe black suits, various puffer jackets, hoody tops and t-shirts in dull colours, mostly grey, navy blue or black, one and a half aisles of pink kiddy wear for guess which gender, half an aisle of male child wear more or less duplicating aisle one in style, and ten aisles of aduilt women's wear in all colours and all manner of materials.

Around that time there was a TV programme about cross-dressing, which I watched with initial curiosity and then growing sympathy, when advocates and practitioners complained To A Man about the limited range of sartorial style available to us, hoodies, trainers and t-shirts in limited colour ranges having been "fashionable" for at least 20 years. It struck me that one of the attractions of the West to those living under Communism, not having to conform by donning uniforms, had been done away with. Personally, one of the things I miss from men's wear is the range of casual smart exemplified by sports jackets in different pattered materials and colours which was still available in all mainstream chain stores in the 1980s. Some of this clobber was still available in Brixton market when I first moved here 9 years ago, when well, casually dressed middle-aged West Indian men were still to be seen around the place. If men are to continue to be forced to look drab, I'll just wear my one-piece boiler suit.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

I'll just wear my one-piece boiler suit.

...alas mine no longer quite fits ... but the donkey jacket from an open cast mine store room that my Uncle gave me when i was 12 still fits as a wearable accompaniment to jeans - the de rigueur outfit at university in the 60s

[eighthobstruction]

I still have USA Army parka from 70's (used now for dirty jobs [never ever washed])....and Down Ultimate jacket from 80's patched and knarled for when I want to appear back-woodsy....(not so often these days - once every 730 days)

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

classic stuff never out of style eh

[amateur51]

That reminds me of an occurrence that I'd quite forgotten. I had come by a small Persian miniature and was going to the local art gallery where there was a curator who specialised in Middle Eastern art. I hoped he would be able to tell me something about it. In the lift, the liftman surveyed the parcel I was carrying. 'Your picture?' 'Yes', I said, 'I'm going to ask Mr X his opinion of it.' The liftman nodded. 'I thought you were an artist. You're wearing corduroy.'

Wasn't there a story about a man turning up for lunch at Windsor Castle at the weekend wearing brown suede shoes? The story goes that King George V approached the miscreant and asked loudly if he was "going ratting?"

[Serial_Apologist]

...alas mine no longer quite fits ... but the donkey jacket from an open cast mine store room that my Uncle gave me when i was 12 still fits as a wearable accompaniment to jeans - the de rigueur outfit at university in the 60s

That and the flat pigeon-breeder cap were essential Socialist Workers party accoutrements, going with their macho "workerist" image, (their sisters too ), according to our correct Marxist position on, ahem, such crucial matters...

[Serial_Apologist]

I still have USA Army parka from 70's (used now for dirty jobs [never ever washed])....and Down Ultimate jacket from 80's patched and knarled for when I want to appear back-woodsy....(not so often these days - once every 730 days)

My navy blue ex-navy great coat, acquired at an ex-army surplus shop in about 1973, was to have been my one lifelong standby, in the event of complete social breakdown, loss of heating provisions, homelessness etc, until last summer, when to my utter devastation I discovered it had been quietly holed all over by clothes moths.

[amateur51]

That and the flat pigeon-breeder cap were essential Socialist Workers party accoutrements, going with their macho "workerist" image, (their sisters too ), according to our correct Marxist position on, ahem, such crucial matters...

Don't forget the Doc Martens shoes too

[Serial_Apologist]

Don't forget the Doc Martens shoes too

Ooh - quite right, I'd forgotten those!

[amateur51]

Ooh - quite right, I'd forgotten those!

There was some special formula that made my feet really sweat - remarkable

[Flosshilde]

You could have made a fortune from that, ams

[eighthobstruction]

There was some special formula that made my feet really sweat - remarkable

....all part of the dialectic....

[vinteuil]

... at school there was a requirement that overcoats should be navy blue.

O the joy of discovering in the army surplus store in Bath in 1969 a well-fitting navy blue greatcoat. Well fitting bicoz (I think) it was a laydeez ARP coat : but double-breasted (ahem) so ambidextrous. I was the coolest sixth-former among a load of conventionals in their trusty products from Horne's or Dunn's, Gorringes or Gamages (need to check on apostrophes here) -in a very safe provincial school...

[Richard Tarleton]

O the joy of discovering in the army surplus store in Bath in 1969 a well-fitting navy blue greatcoat.

In my teens I discovered, in a trunk at home, my father's naval greatcoat that he had worn on a Murmansk convoy. It had to go to the local branch of Gieves for some repairs and alterations (sadly they insisted on replacing the naval buttons with plastic ones) and I wore it a few times over the years. But it was extremely heavy - cloakroom attendants would collapse under the weight - and not very practical. I recently gave it, with provenance, to Oxfam, where hopefully its back story pushed the price up.