130710
FOR THE SAKE OF APPEARANCES
by Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT, Cincinnati, OH
Does appearance count? I think so. In fact, I think we should declare, nationwide, the fourth Friday of each month as Formal Friday!
Not too long ago I read that the business community is moving to reduce or discard Casual Friday, etc., and return to the more conservative dress codes of years past. Hurrah! I personally think this would have a major impact on our economy by invigorating the depressed necktie market, and by using more cloth in dresses and suits [as opposed to jeans].
I had a heck of a time when I changed jobs one time. Had been teaching full-time in a technical institute where we not only had to wear collars and ties, but we had to keep our sleeves rolled down, properly cuffed and buttoned! The new place instituted Casual Friday, but I just never could come to grips with that, to the point that I was scorned [well not really, just made fun of] because I still wore ties-- in the bleary light of morn, tying the tie was automatic! Slowly I relented [or sank] into wearing dress shirts but no tieI felt naked on the bus ride to work!
I come from a background of ties. My Dad worked in bank where white shirts and ties were strict SOP. Pop shopped at the Arrow shirt store and bought his shirts by the box [I think they were $2.50 or $3.00sometime ago!] and they were always broadcloth and sparking in white [Mom kept them that way]. He could be made no happier at Christmas than to get a new tie. Hhe preferred ties that were not silk, because silk slipped, and the knot insisted on being askew-- and in banks where the VPs wore $75 suits, no askew was permitted!
That was a value Pop passed on to me. Of course, the Army helped with not only the ties but-- well, did you ever try to button the fly on starched khakis on the run trying to make your inspection formation? Well, you HAD better have every button buttoned or you walked punishment tours. Now many cant seem to get their shoe laces tied, which reinforces my bent toward universal military training [Oh, and they can learn to get their belt line up at their waist, also; think of one of those kids when the DI yells, Suck in that gut! Theyll be there in their… Do they still wear underwear?
In the late 50s we were the scorn of campus in our old Army khakis [as architects we had paint, watercolors, glue, etc. on ours] while the Bus Ad students were in sport coats with arms decorated with Tri Delts! I had one prof who was wealthy and eccentricold tweed jacket, button down shirt and a silk tie so long it passed over his navel and his belt buckle and down to… Man, we thought he was neat; had pock marks of concrete spatter on his pants, too.
One time I walked passed a haberdashery shop [look it up] time and time again, admiring a tie. The shop was up scale, and not where I got my clothes [remember Bonds, Richmans, Robert Hall?] Well, finally one day, feeling and being a little dollar flush, I went in and bought the tie-- for 5 bucks!!! I told no one! Most ties were about $2.50 at the time. I wore that thing forever, and felt so darn good every time.
You see at that time suits, sport coats, and blazers., were common dress, along with suits, skirts, dresses, hose, heels, wing tips, lapels, padded shoulders, etc. Architects and professors were easily recognized in Harris tweed jackets, flannel trousers, Oxford cloth shirts [button down] and quirky bow ties, usually smoking a pipe [oh, yes, many wore leather elbow pads on their sleeves].
Now what about all this? Personally I feel much of it still has its place. Its rather disconcerting to see a news anchor stand up only to find he is wearing jeans under his shirt [not tucked in] and jacket, without socks and floppy moccasins. He only has to look good from the table top up!
The Casual Friday place had to have 7 iterations of the dress code to avoid cut-offs, flip-flops, overly wallpaperish jeans, plunging necklines, etc.-- casual was easily spelled, sloppy. Just the other day I was in an attorneys office, in Florida [where things are quite different I guess] and saw several people who matched the exclusions from the dress code just noted. Other places the ladies cross over-- neatly dressed in a fitted suit, but carrying their heels in their purses, and changing into them, from their sneakers, just in time to start work. I can remember when paving in the streets were pock-marked from the tiny heels they wore [what was ita 108 pound lady exerted something like 30,000 psi when she stepped heel first on those tiny darts!]
Would we offend our clients if we wore collars and ties, dresses/suits, to meetings where they showed up in golf shirts, and khakis? Dont we look a little strange when we make a presentation and the pathetic knot in our tie lies twisted and almost under one tab of the collar? Is there, indeed, a correlation between professionalism and appearance? [if you hesitated, my answer is, yes!]
And we cannot let the wonderful manufacturers reps, go unscathed. Check yourselfdo you look like your appointment with me was crammed in between the 9th and 10th holes? Am I to believe that your product is of highest quality and worth the added cost when your polka-dot tie and plaid shirt seem to vibrate?
Sure, Im old, but doggone it, why is it the exception that strikes the eye today? Why is it that the TV preacher takes the time to have his tie neatly tied, firmly up in his collar, and perfectly centered? Its cause, God cares! His appearance portrays calm, perfection, beauty and a sense of caring.
Now, Ill grant that life and appearance are different in upstate Wisconsin, and different in Milwaukee and both quite different from Dallas, and even West Palm, but still your persona, your attitude, your projection of professionalism is directly tied to your appearance. You can be brilliant and look like a slob [again check the campuses], but that need not be. Maybe its a matter of caring-- about yourself. We all still suffer from the me era when no one cared what anyone else thought. Well, other folks do look, do see, do judge! While that may be unfortunate, and wonderful people have beards and long hair, you dont have to look at yourself-- but the rest of us do!
Do appearances count?
Darn tootin ! Now, guys wear and straighten that tie; and ladies, check those similar touches!.
