Fashion Board 5-7-04 to 6-9-04

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Anybody's wife can pick out a nice HF...

Your wife picks out your hate fucks? You're lucky.

TM

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by dtb
By the way -- when I told mr.dtb our son's "poo and pee" joke -- he he laughed so hard, he practically swallowed his own tongue. Like I said...

Did you have to loosen his neckerchief?

TM

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Pleated pants made with really good fabric (suits, expensive pants) will drape nicely, but pleated Dockers/Gap khakis type pleated pants will balloon.

FWIW, Levi's is looking to off-load its Dockers label to pay off debt. J.C. Penney said that they weren't interested.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by mmm3587
This is my philosophy, too. So many guys I work with only have three modes of dress: (i) random, casual weekend or non-workday stuff (this is broad and has subcategories, but it's not revelant here), (ii) business casual as worn to the office almost every day and (iii) business dress, usually a dark suit. This is boring and stupid. It's stupid to exclusivle (ii) or (iii) to the following occasions: cultural event, upscale but not that upscale restaurant, some wedding-related events, some kinds of client visits and travel, etc. I'm not saying that (ii) or (iii) won't work some of the time for these events, but it's just stupid to say that wearing a sport coat makes you look like a coach at a wedding.

And (ii) for so many people devolves into a knit polo with dockers (worn with a conspicuous Rolex so you can tell them apart from the copy guy). I work in a business casual environment. I'm pretty sure this doesn't mean board shorts and I don't want to dress like I'm headed to Chili's after Wednesday night choir practice.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Pretty Little Flower
Apparently, they are in:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/18/fashion/18FRON.html

Do any guys here wear neckerchiefs? Do you know anyone who does? Is this something I could actually get away with, other than on my way to and from spin class?

I hear they're terribly popular in the Castro, on Halsted Street, and all over South Beach.

Which isn't to say there's anything wrong with them. It's simply that they are strongly associated with a lifestyle.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Pretty Little Flower
When these discussions come up, just run to your law firm fridge and grab some of the yummy margarine and Wonder Bread sandwiches with the crusts cut off that you find so comforting, and it will all be better.

You know, I bet thos sandwiches would go really well with a nice wedge of iceberg lettuce and some creamy italian dressing.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Since we appear to be looking to newspapers (?) to dictate our fashion sense, the WSJ is saying that flat shoes a la Audrey Hepburn are now hip and sexy. I think not.

Nothing against Ms Hepburn - when she was young she would have looked good wearing paper slippers, but for the rest of us, in my opinion flat slipper shoes are not particularly sexy unless you are really little and pixie-like.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
. . . the school tells your daughter she has to stay in the principal's office until she sees fit to take out her banned facial piercings, and you say something like "Let them stand up for what they believe in."

Hey, dumbass --- your daughter is getting punished for a dress code violation, and her grades are suffering. Can you name the thing she "believe[s] in"?

I realize there's a chance that 100% of the LWOK and maybe 30% of the LWK are going to say it's none of the school's friggin' business what kids wear, but most parents don't want their kids to make permanent body alterations at age 13 and are relieved that schools back up this parenting decision. When the minority of parents who favor body alteration take on this policy as a matter of "free speech," they make the policy go away and signal to kids that being jackasses about a rule gets results. They're ruining a system of parent-school cooperative repression and conformity that has worked for 150 years.

If dress code violations are free speech, don't come crying to the VP when your daughter volunteers for the Offensive Line Gangbang Webcam --- that's free speech, too. "Let them stand up for what they believe in."

The mere fact that she has facial piercings at the age of 13 tells me all I need to know about the parents. If the Wonk Princess came home with a facial piercing, I would probably remove it with a needle-nose pliers. Then I would go find the monster who pierced her and use the pliers to remove other things.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
Since we appear to be looking to newspapers (?) to dictate our fashion sense, the WSJ is saying that flat shoes a la Audrey Hepburn are now hip and sexy. I think not.

Nothing against Ms Hepburn - when she was young she would have looked good wearing paper slippers, but for the rest of us, in my opinion flat slipper shoes are not particularly sexy unless you are really little and pixie-like.

May Allure says the same thing. I am on your side.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
The mere fact that she has facial piercings at the age of 13 tells me all I need to know about the parents. If the Wonk Princess came home with a facial piercing, I would probably remove it with a needle-nose pliers. Then I would go find the monster who pierced her and use the pliers to remove other things.

That was my attitude towards pierced ears. Then I was forcibly re-educated, learning that they were completely acceptable. Why are nose studs so much of a leap from putting holes in your ear lobes? I think AG was way off-base on this one.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally posted by taxwonk
I hear they're terribly popular in the Castro, on Halsted Street, and all over South Beach.

Which isn't to say there's anything wrong with them. It's simply that they are strongly associated with a lifestyle.

To and from spin class it is, then. Thx!!!

[purse junkie]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
Since we appear to be looking to newspapers (?) to dictate our fashion sense, the WSJ is saying that flat shoes a la Audrey Hepburn are now hip and sexy. I think not.

Nothing against Ms Hepburn - when she was young she would have looked good wearing paper slippers, but for the rest of us, in my opinion flat slipper shoes are not particularly sexy unless you are really little and pixie-like.

Agreed. While we're at it, may I also have carte blanche to kick into traffic anyone mincing along the sidewalk in front of me in kitten-heel mules, which may look cute but are useless for walking?

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
Since we appear to be looking to newspapers (?) to dictate our fashion sense, the WSJ is saying that flat shoes a la Audrey Hepburn are now hip and sexy. I think not.

The Wall Street Journal is dictating what is hip and sexy? There's gotta be a "Laffer Curve" joke in there somewhere ...

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Jack Manfred
So I am looking to buy some pants, and I go into a Banana Republic. From reading this board I know that pleated pants are verboten. So I look at the two styles offered: both plain-front pants with a low rise. Now, the low-rise thing is silly, especially on men, and especially if you just want a pair of pants to wear in a casual office. So I go to the clerk and ask, "Do you have a pair of plain-front pants with a normal rise?" He replies, "Of course," and takes me to the pants section. After peering at the signs on the two stacks of pants, and looking a bit like a yellow lab whose owner has just palmed the tennis ball, he says, "I guess we don't."

Then, in an apparent attempt to reassert his fashion sense, he tells me not to worry, as pleated pants will be returning to stores this very fall, due to customer demand for a more businesslike pant.

What the hell is going on here?

I will not accept the answer that I should just wear suits to work. When I do that for no reason, the other attorneys in my office ask me where I am interviewing. Besides, I've seen some suits without pleats or cuffs, and it just doesn't look right to me. I was sold on the chinos without pleats, but a suit should have cuffs.

Ignore the fools and slaves who tell you pleats are verboten. Pleats are as classic as the white button-down and the Bass Weejun. Some things just never go out of style. Now, go the nearest Nordstrom, buy yourself some Polo chinos with pleats and cuffs, take them home, mix up a pitcher of martinis and relax to some soothing McCoy Tyner and Sonny Rollins.

I swear, kids these days and their wacky neckerchiefs.

[mmm3587]

Originally posted by bilmore
That was my attitude towards pierced ears. Then I was forcibly re-educated, learning that they were completely acceptable. Why are nose studs so much of a leap from putting holes in your ear lobes? I think AG was way off-base on this one.

Also, the bigger issue is that her mother let her do it. I might disagree with that, but I do think that, for a public school, it's within parents' rights to dictate what their kids have in their faces, within reason. Just like a public school should not be able to deny education based on gold teeth or bad skin, neither should they be able to say "no piercings if you want book-learnin'!"

I've done a little bit of pro bono school law stuff, and I've drawn two conclusions: (i) kids do a lot of really stupid things and their parents back them up and say they did nothing wrong and (ii) school administrators have leaped ahead of cops in the category of "people who rule over their own pathetic little spheres of power and control without rationality, fairness or appropriate exercise of disretion. It's pretty pathetic they stuff they try to get away with and ultimately don't, when all they have to do is meet some minor standard of fairness not even close to due process.