"It used to seem unfathomable to me that there was a time long ago when people would get home after a full day of work and make themselves more comfortable by putting on a pair of jeans. Now, finally, I get it. I am currently wearing some wide-leg jeans that are — dare I say — cozy....There is no hint of irony, no wink to the camera. Just a nice pair slacks, some New Balance sneakers, and the newfound desire to talk about a boat you saw once....."
From "2022 FASHION YEAR IN REVIEW/The Dad-ification of 2022 Fashion" (NY Magazine).
Posts
26 comments:
My Dad was a bricklayer. He'd come home, shower, and change into slacks (fan of cavalry twills) and a long sleeve shirt. Only wore polos when he golfed and Hawaiian shirts were reserved for Hawaii. Oh, and leather shoes at home. Standards have slipped a lot.
I was at a party last night in San Francisco at a 5-star hotel.
The average age of attendees was maybe 35.
Lots of beards, jeans, plaid shirts, etc.
Of course the host was a software company.
This is not your father's IBM...
The notion that being a family man is incompatible with style is just more misandrist crap, combbin3d with an excuse by men who've given up and prefer to look like slobs.
I find this mildly disturbing. One of the dark pleasures of fatherhood is creeping your adolescent kids out with your fashion choices. I particularly remember my daughter's horror at my 70s Pittsburg Pirates hat, which, as fate would have it I had on when interviewed for a man-on-the street interview featured on the front page of the Boulder Daily Camera. (I still have the hat.)
I grew up in a small town in northern Indiana in the 1960's where my Dad was a doctor.
One day, my Mom said she needed to run over to Kmart and asked Dad if he wanted to go. My Dad's response was "sure, let me put on a necktie". He felt he needed to maintain a certain image in public.
The things you remember...
New Balance makes wide sizes that fit old, fat people's feet.
Jeans, likewise, come in large, large, sizes.
Guess how I know.
I never saw my father wear Blue Jeans. He always wore a hat when out and wore suits on formal occasions. Times have sure changed.
When the author starts the article with, "Popular culture has become increasingly paternal over the past decade.", I wonder if he knows what that sentence means or doesn't care as long as it seems glib.
I clicked through to the Bottega Veneta Spring Collection referenced in the article. The models looked as malnourished as usual, but the clothes looked like something you might see a normal person wearing. Does "dad-ification" just mean acting like a normal person?
Oddly enough, I wore jeans at home and on weekends for my entire adult life. Pants/slacks to work and then change to jeans. (Does anyone use the term 'slacks' anymore?)
Then I moved to Arizona and, being a work-from-home consultant, wear shorts 10 months out of the year. The weird thing is, I've switched to pants/slacks in the Winter here; my jeans have felt way too constricting the last couple of years.
I suspect that for much of the fashion world, the only 'dad vibe' was "absentee."
My father was a NASA pilot, and a Marine officer. His two forays into fashion were:
- Having a new flight helmet painted metallic robin's-egg blue.
- A pair of harlequin patchwork pants. Which he wore into work once, on a Saturday. They were mostly at home weekend pants.
The helmet, though. He told me he flew with it once, then had it repainted standard gloss white. But...When I was going through his estate, I found it in the attic. Robin's-egg metallic blue. I still have it.
I keep telling my wife that slacks a few inches too short are just fashion forward. (She doesn't dress all that well herself, but I don't critique her choices.)
I haven't 'given up' on fashion, I just never got on board in any serious way. I don't recall anything in particular about my father's dress (1923-1962) except he wore shorts in the hot weather and a suit and tie to the office.
My accumulation of nice button-down long-sleeved shirts for work, and my ties, don't get much use. At least there will be plenty of choice for my cremation suit.
Be wary of anyone exercising liberal license to indulge diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry).
Revised title: "Ignorant Urban Elitist Who Knows Nothing of Fathers or Fashion History Publishes Arrogant and Condescending Stereotypes Once Again"
The vibe in my father's house was very different. This was back in the '30's.
Family lore has it that his dad would come home from work, shout "Everybody shut up!", head to the fridge for a beer, and plop into his favorite chair.
If you examine the historical data on jeans sales, you'll see that jeans have been the height of fashion forever.
Just not among the "right people."
"Dad" is a joke category. An outdated category. We all have a humorous contempt for "dads." They won't really be missed.
Maybe a need to make clothes that people will buy is affecting fashion. Sort of like the shakeout at CNN caused by a need to do programs people will watch. Or maybe the shakeout is causing people to scurry into Dad camouflage clothes. You could have a new fashion line called Office Gear.
Lexington Green said...
"Dad" is a joke category. An outdated category. We all have a humorous contempt for "dads." They won't really be missed.
*************
Yeah, all those bored. depressed and feral kids of "single moms" don't miss their dads one bit.
In my first two decades as a litigator, I wore a suit and tie everyday. I felt naked and exposed going out to a decent restaurant without a tie, even on weekends. Casual wear was chinos. You did not wear jeans to the office, even on Saturdays. I recall being advised that blue button down shirts were frowned upon.
My current self finds it hard to imagine that that person really existed.
And with covid making everything remote, I wear jeans to work and keep a jacket and tie on a hanger behind the door so I can look like a lawyer for depositions and hearings.
How luxurious to indulge the occasional impulse to experiment with normality. We normies have waited so patiently for the fashion cycle to briefly allow us a frisson of chic. But what will be next? I tremble with anticipation.
I guess I was a trailblazer. After 12 years of shirts and ties for school (clip-ons until mid-third grade, detachable collars and studs the final 5), I dressed in open button-down and tennis shirts for 6 years of higher ed. No wool pants. Then, for the first decade of my legal career, I worked mostly at remote locations on big cases with long hours. A perk was being able to dress as we had in school unless for court, deposition or other formal setting. As a result, I really don't remember when casual Fridays started, and moved to casual everyday in California, since it was just a return to my first decade, no biggie. I did wind down wearing jeans in my late 40s or early 50s. No longer fit in the old pairs and didn't care to break in new ones. Bought my last suits and wool pants a decade ago. Have a couple of pairs of re-soled and re-heeled leather lace-ups I bought 2 or or more. May be buried in the next suit I get fitted for.
One of the last situations I still dressed in a jacket and tie was flying. Started as a teenager and it just felt better. Still often do it. Then usually the only man to board in a jacket.
My Dad, the B-17 driver, came home from the office, LOOSENED his tie & sat in a comfortable chair reading the paper until dinner was ready. Of course, the front door was never locked & the key was in the car in the driveway. *sigh*
There was a time when young men aspired to dress likw adults. Now men aspire to dress like children.
Post a Comment