Conforming for the office

[Rex_Tremende]

There is an article in Today's NY Times Style section on weather-appropriate work attire (by subscription) I think reflects some of the sentiment that we've discussed here in this forum. For the purposes of commentary, here are some of the more pertinent passages:

I Wore Shorts to Work, and They All Laughed
By ERIC WILSON

IN the late 19th century, Oscar Wilde was ridiculed for his views on fashion, specifically that men should follow the enlightened example of women in the Victorian era: lighter fabrics, brighter colors and generally more comfortable clothes. A parody of Wilde in Punch caricatured a man wearing shorts as effeminate and wimpy.
[...]

Last week during the heat wave, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg suggested New Yorkers wear light-colored, loose-fitting clothing, though he continued showing up to work in a dark suit. His remarks drew the same tone of derision as Wilde suffered.
[...]

Nevertheless, I...wore shorts to work on Thursday. It was partly a show of civic-mindedness, but also a way of redressing the disparity between men, who wear a stifling suit and tie to the office in summer, and women, who breeze by in ventilated cotton eyelet skirts with loose silk camisoles or the bubble silhouette dress of the season that barely seems to graze the body.

And clearly I was not alone in noticing this double standard. The designer Cynthia Rowley had been reading a report from The Associated Press that day that advised women to prepare for the heat wave by wearing dresses, but offered no guidance for men. “I should go down to Wall Street and set up a little booth where I could cut off their pants legs and hem them into shorts,” she said. “But they would have to throw away their socks.” There was a short-lived shorts moment in the 1950’s, abbreviated for that reason.
[...]

I wore a dressy pair of low-waisted, narrow knee-length navy twill shorts from Joseph, a white dress shirt, brown loafers (no socks) and a tightly tailored gray jacket from Thom Browne, another designer who put shorts suits in his fall collection. I found myself cooler, strangely confident and, because of that, walking more gaily than usual.

But on the street, people stared. Some took pictures.
[...]

“It is unfair,” [a manager of the NY Public Library] said. “Women wear flip-flops and miniskirts, and some of them even have their stomachs out. But if I wore shorts, they’d make a big deal of it in the office. You look around, and all the men have long pants on, so it’s obvious that you have to wear them. We’re not in Bermuda.”

“Shorts are against library policy,” [he] added. “Though women tend to get away with them.”
[...]

The philosopher J C Flügel explained [contempt for] reformers in the 1930’s as rooted in “man’s intense fear of appearing different from his fellows” and also fear of association with tendencies of narcissism and homosexuality. I went ahead walking more gaily.

Michael Anton, a former speechwriter for President Bush who now works for Rupert Murdoch at News Corp. Under the pseudonym Nicholas Antongiavanni, Mr. Anton wrote “The Suit,” a book on corporate style.

“Shorts, for the immediate future, are a step too far,” [said Michael Anton, who, under a pseudonym wrote "The Suit," a book on corporate style]. “If we ended up dressing identically for work and for leisure pursuits, men would feel intuitively that something has been lost.”

Comfort, for one thing. But on Friday I wore pants.

Unfortunately, the author overlooked the kilt option, but something tells me that if he's afraid of being laughed at over shorts, he'll have a tougher time strapping on a nice five-yard summer kilt. Shorts or kilts, it seems that we share the same concerns that constrain men into conformity.

So, I should talk? I wear a suit to work every day, but here's my stupid concession: on the hottest days last week I carried my jacket in, hung it on the hanger in my cube, and carried it out. Would I have preferred to wear my MacLeod of Harris Hunting kilt and linen shirt? You betcha, but that's not the company I hired into.


Yet.


Regards,
Rex in Cincinnati

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[Tattoo Bradley]

There is an article in Today's NY Times Style section on weather-appropriate work attire (by subscription) I think reflects some of the sentiment that we've discussed here in this forum. For the purposes of commentary, here are some of the more pertinent passages:



Unfortunately, the author overlooked the kilt option, but something tells me that if he's afraid of being laughed at over shorts, he'll have a tougher time strapping on a nice five-yard summer kilt. Shorts or kilts, it seems that we share the same concerns that constrain men into conformity.

So, I should talk? I wear a suit to work every day, but here's my stupid concession: on the hottest days last week I carried my jacket in, hung it on the hanger in my cube, and carried it out. Would I have preferred to wear my MacLeod of Harris Hunting kilt and linen shirt? You betcha, but that's not the company I hired into.


Yet.


Regards,
Rex in Cincinnati

Very interesting.

[phil h]

what a sad (pathetic) world we live in when a guy gets Laughed at for wearing shorts. I would have put a kilt on and pointed out the fact that if women can wear skirts then so can I.

[Raphael]

If this heat wave continues, are we going to see men challenge the fashion world and wear kilts!!!

[Kilted_John]

If this heat wave continues, are we going to see men challenge the fashion world and wear kilts!!!

Raphael,

Those of us who have the balls to do it will. But, sadly, I suspect that most guys won't challenge the norms. They're too insecure.

-J

[UmAnOnion]

I can personally testify to the comfort of wearing shorts to work as a former resident of that lovely Isle world renowned for its knee baring garb for men in the business world. And when the shorts were made of medium weight linen your comfort was extended tenfold.

Such comfort is vastly overshadowed by that of the kilt with its built in air-conditioning but I doubt that either would be welcomed with open arms in the offices of today.

My concession to the 90 degree plus heat wave NYC has been experiencing of late is to come into work wearing shorts and change into trousers [shudder] that I have left there on a previous day or have brought in with me. The A/C in my office is set on nuclear winter anyway so the additional protection is somewhat welcomed. If I am heading out for more than a few minutes I switch back - unless I am headed to see a client then I curse the fashion gods with every dirty word I know.


Hhhmmm... thinking back -it was wearing a kilt that got me the job in the first place .... Maybe I should give it a try on a 'casual; Friday' & see what the powers that be have to say.....

[Kilted KT]

I'll have to agree that wearing the kilt to work takes some balls in some situations. I've worm mine to work twice now, with no issues. The problem comes when you take into account the massive layoffs all throughout the company I work for, some of which are completely unexpected. While I've fought for them in the past, fighting over clothing at the expense of my son's medical insurance isn't in the cards today.

I raise my flask to all those who are able to challenge the 'status quo' of busines dress.

[TechBear]

All I can say is: Thank goodness I live on the west coast, where people are far less stuffy about "proper attire" than they are on the uptight coast.

[Kilted KT]

All I can say is: Thank goodness I live on the west coast, where people are far less stuffy about "proper attire" than they are on the uptight coast.

I think that uptight coast goes all the way through to nevada or so...I'm in oklahoma where it is 100+ degrees every day!

[Raphael]

My concession to the 90 degree plus heat wave NYC has been experiencing of late is to come into work wearing shorts and change into trousers [shudder] that I have left there on a previous day or have brought in with me. The A/C in my office is set on nuclear winter anyway so the additional protection is somewhat welcomed. If I am heading out for more than a few minutes I switch back - unless I am headed to see a client then I curse the fashion gods with every dirty word I know.

Instead of shorts, how about show up to work with your kilts on?