Fashion Rant

My wife and I enjoyed an evening out at a local nightclub last week. We went to see Jackie Mason, who is a very famous comedian, perform. The tickets were quite expensive, the club was posh, but not exclusive. As we waited for the evening to begin we noticed the fashions of our fellow audience members.

I was shocked at how poorly so many people dressed. About 2/3 of the men in the audience wore a suit or sportcoat. The other 1/3? You could almost hear the conversations they had at home:

“This is a fancy event tonight, where did I leave my good white T-Shirt, you know, the one without words?”

or

“I’ll be stylin’ tonight, I have my clean gym shoes on . . .”

or, sadly,

“Dear, have you seen my new baseball cap?”

There is something fundamentally disrespectful and wrong about attending fancy events in lousy clothing. Disrespectful for your guest (wife, girlfriend, associate) as well as for yourself. It says, “You’re not worth dressing up for” or even worse, “I’m not worth getting dressed for”. Who would ever choose to send that message knowingly? How do these folks signifiy a special event in their lives if not by dressing up?

There were plenty of people who were not dressed well, that is, outfits didn’t fit, didn’t match, or simply looked lousy (don’t get me started on the tiered cake dress one lady wore), nonetheless, these people at least TRIED to dress properly. And they do get points for trying.

But the putz who shows up wearing T-Shirt, ball cap and tennis shoes? There’s no excuse. The fact that there were so many people similarly attired is just depressing.