Fashionistas you have arrived 3-25-03 - 10-3-03

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by dtb
Hmmm. Interesting. I would have thought you would be the last person to use fall back upon the "functionality" exemption for improper clothing use.

You would be correct, if someone were discussing something improper rather than just dumb looking. There is a big difference between impropriety and bad fashion sense. Bad style happens. There isn't an excuse of taste or lack thereof for flat impropriety.

Weren't you advocating wearing high heels when fleeing a terrorist attack on your city rather than change into the more functional sneakers in your gym bag on the basis that wearing said sneakers would be "improper" with work clothing?

I don't think I was quite advocating it, just noting that, having managed it without getting blisters, I have little sympathy for the argument that a stroll to the subway in the morning is such a trial. In issues of propriety, necessity trumps conflicting propriety concerns. It has to be a real conflict, though. It is entirely acceptable to flee for one's life without hat and gloves, or to eat with one's hands when foraging on a deserted island after a shipwreck. (I'd personally consider flight from a terrorist attack to be an honorary all-city "athletic event.") When selecting one's regular walking shoes, however, there are plenty of proper, comfortable or orthapedic daytime dress and street shoes one can find without reaching for the sneakers as the only thing on hand in a last-ditch desperate bid for survival. The fact that they may be ugly makes it a "style" issue, and style doesn't trump propriety (or, if it does, one can just acknowledge that being stylish is more important to one than being proper and abandon claims of propriety).

Some "proprieties" cannot be dispensed with at all, because a real necessity argument cannot be made: even when running before the invading Martian armies, it is still necessary to say "excuse me" to whomever you bump into, to say please and thank you when appropriate, and to otherwise respectfully address your fellow fleeing masses when not actually shouting "look out!"

Isn't wearing a sweater about the neck not really what you're supposed to be doing with it?

"Supposed to" doesn't enter into that one. There's nothing wrong with doing it, it just looks too dippy for anyone sensible to do it as an intentional "fashion statement."

Actually, I take that back - sweater over the shoulders is improper, in addition to being silly-looking, while wearing black or white tie, because gentlemen have no business wearing a sweater with formal evening dress.