Beau Brummel, patron saint of man's sartorial splendor around 1778 was a good friend of a future king of England. He taught the young king how to dress appropriately. Beau Brummel supposedly took 5 hours to dress everyday, even shined his boots with champagne. The British male, more or less set the standard for male sartorial persona, Fleet Street bankers, members of the English nobility.
On a trip to the Antarctic, I shared quarters with a Fleet Street banker from London. Some of the ladies on the ship asked me if he wore a tie with his pajamas...he was always so immaculately dressed. He dressed for success. I learned enough about him, his homes, his vehicles, his reputation in Britain to assure you that he was, in every way, a success.
In 1990, following the lead of America's Wall Street, the bankers of Fleet Street and other British bankers and financiers started the same miserable habit, casual Friday. It was a complete failure, everyone knows how dress up, but very few know how to dress down...sweatsuits, gym clothing, pajamas, etc. On one television program I heard Oprah say that she traveled in pajamas. If you are the world's richest woman you could travel in most anything and no one would care. I understand that she dresses appropriately in front of the public's photographers (television, magazines, other appearances).
I thank God that I never saw my mother or grandmother in slacks. They wore dresses and an apron around the house, but when they went anywhere to be seen in public, they were appropriately dressed, mostly “Sunday” clothes. Slacks were introduced in 1942 on the cover of Life Magazine. I never had a female schoolteacher or college professor who wore slacks. Back in the 40s and 50s, some high school girls did wear jeans. There was a time when people dressed for church, funerals, weddings, you even dressed appropriately for a civic club, country club, golf club. Great golfers such as Bobby Jones or Babe Zahares knew how to dress on the golf links.
My parents were just dirt farmers, but before they went to town, to the lawyer's office, the doctor, anywhere, they knew how to dress. I can still remember my mother, beautifully dressed, going to our activities at the public school. You do not dress for comfort, you own your own power, you do not hide under your own clothing. Why go through all the years of education and preparation, to destroy it all with your appearance? You do not change first impressions. Beau Brummel said that a man wears an understated, but well-fitted tailored clothing including dark suits and full-length trousers adorned with a striking tie.
If you want to dress down, just dress for comfort, wear a Djellaba as in Africa, or a Dhoti or sari as in India. Even in Africa or India, you can always tell an expensive African or Hawaiian Muumuu and an expensive Indian sari. I think I would have to “take a pill and lie down” if I ever saw a woman enter a church in a pant suit, but I understand that it happens. Don't women understand that it is gays (homosexuals), that have designed their clothing for the last 50 years. They have gotten rid of all femininity and encased them in unflattering boxes and sacks. Don't women realize that the homosexual coiffures of their hair are the same “queens” who designed haute couture apparel for them. You are in their clutches for stealing for the real males who may be attracted to a woman. Like a tsunami, word has traveled around the world that in order to be successful, male or female, you must dress for success, even women executives will wear well-tailored pant suits.
School teachers have told me that students perform better when well-dressed. I am the world's proponent of uniforms in school. Why not just let your military servicemen dress “in just any ol' way they choose”, individually? No discipline, no gravitas, no limitations of any type. I understand that some preachers actually go into the pulpit in jeans and t-shirts, this must be a stench in the nostrils of God. One pastor traveled along distance to ask me advice on correcting the dress of people in his church. I said, “you need a back door revival.” You have unsaved people who do not dress even for the worship of almighty God.
When I was in professional school, all medical, dental, optometry, nursing, all professions, even the lawyers wore shirts and ties to class. I understand that some seminaries do not have a dress code...are the just trying to tempt the hand of an omnipotent sovereign?
In today's job market, in today's quest for sexual identity, let the perverts dress in drag, let the perverts tattoo and pierce themselves, lets the gays wear long feminine hair, the lesbians wear short, butch hair...let them look like trash. They don't care, they are only concerned with their short life here on this planet. The redeemed of the Lord say so. (Psalm 107) In spirit, word, dress we are his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). We are what we are.
I never leave my house without a dress shirt and tie, usually a jacket, always polished shoes. It is not just your haircut, not just a clean shave, not just your smell, your attitude, but you and you alone know how much you think of yourself.
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