"Smart Casual"
To a fool like me, this is casual wear.
There is no such thing. I was in the last month to a party that in its essential elements was elegant and wonderful. The occasion was the engagement of two friends. The home of the groom to be was well appointed. The weather was most fortunate - warm but not sweltering. The hired wait staff executed their jobs with aplomb. Drinks and conversation - all that.
The invitation to this event specified that attire for this party was "Smart Casual". What is a young man aspiring to be a young gentleman wear to such an event? I dressed in a jacket and a shirt that could rightly be described as "smart" - with its spread collar and striped pattern. Even accounting for the slightly degraded view of what constitutes "Casual" I considered the event for which this party is being celebrated - betrothal and decided that Jeffery Tucker's1 advice is right
Note that wearing a sports coat is not dressing up. A sports coat and trousers are casual wear. It is mostly what you should be wearing to light parties, most jobs, to the store. It is perfectly presentable for public consumption. But do not be deceived into thinking that you are "dressing up" when you wear them. A sports coat and trousers are the official uniform of a man who is just going about the business of life. When someone says, come casual!, this is what you wear.-Jeffery Tucker
My ladyfriend arrives to pick me up and tells me I must change. That in fact the groom to be will be wearing shorts. Since this party is with accountants the combination of being over-dressed with my propensity for discouse-like conversation whether on the antebellum south or on early 15th century mysticism would make me appear quite a bore. Apparently "smart casual" - a recently invented term - means "no jeans". I lay no blame on my hosts - they are merely following convention - something a conservative such as myself would praise. My mistake was in anachronistically following a tradition. I'm screwy like that. Latin Masses, wearing a suit to Mass - thinking casual means a jacket, thinking golf is "aspirational".
But if there are some out there who, like me, prefer dress codes2 that have some definable content - they are casual, formal and black tie. Nothing "smart casual" or "fun formal" or worst of all "creative black tie".
1) I do not normally recommend reading libertarians.
2) I like dress coeds too. Fruedian typo duly corrected.
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Lifestyle Friday
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Response: Closet CaseThis post isn't really explicitly political but, then again, I'm not really explicitly blogging today either. A few days ago, Aunt B. posted on homosexuality and the new Superman movie. Apparently, the director prefers other men, too many shots of...
Reader Comments (9)
My legal philosophy professor is obsessed with libertarianism and we've spent the last week or so focusing on the subject. I don't mind, because he encourages dissent and challenge, but I have to say that reading libertarian propaganda has made me far more solidly paternalistic. Last night I wrote a brief, candid paper with the title, "Why I am not a Libertarian."
Today at work my boss happened to stop in. While unusual for a Saturday he asked how things were going. I was wearing a collared shirt and jeans, what I would consider work wear (these days) for brewing. He commented on how I was perhaps the best dressed brewer they had.
I'm unsure whether to take that as a compliment or a sad commentary on our culture.
Considering that a few historical photos show brewers of the early 20th century in slacks, shirt tie and even a vest, I sometimes wonder how far we've come and how much we need to figure out we should have taken the right at that fork.
Togas. Togas are always appropriate. Especially when confronted with a dress code.
For instance, lets say my wife is going to mass where the dress code is of the silly Jansenist variety. Well my wife simply wears her toga knowing that Lucy, Cecilia, Anastasia, Perpetua Agatha, etc. all dressed likewise.
In fact, for school wear, togas are far better. Plaid american jumpers are pretty darn cute, but togas are more ordered towards the intellectual life, as well as being more lovely on a women’s figure and thus appealing to all which is good.
Look at it this way. Is there any occasion where a toga does not fit in?
Sitting on the beach drinking wine from seashells? Togas are perfect, and useful to boot for the married couple who are need of a sheet to spread over the sand.
Or as a wedding dress? Come on, other than the lovely tea length dress I’ve yet to see, a toga wins hands down. And bride’s maid dresses are always the worst. Replace those sillies with togas and every one will be much appreciative. Especially the maids.
So whether it’s attending Mass, a wedding, school or the beach, or wherever : Just think Toga and shove all your other clothes under the bed where they belong.
I think one mark of the old suit and tie was that it boldly said to all and sundry: I don't have to lift a finger at work, so, therefore, I can dress somewhat uncomfortably. It was a class signal. Just as fair skin was. Now a good physique and a tan say the same thing: I have the ability to spend lots of time running, sunning, and generally at leisure. To me I don't know what's worse, business casual, or the crummy polyester ties and suits worn by support staff to have pro forma adherence to a business dress code.
That said, working hard all week even slightly dressed up, makes me want to wear t-shirts and jeans on the weekends. The novelty has worn off, and the quest for class signals is very WASP and fin de siecle, and in that sense, a tad un-American. At least arguably.
I'm currently working away in bare feet wearing a tattered cut-off sleeved cotton sweatshirt and worn out Polo chinos rolled up over my calves. And my fishing hat.
So just wondering:
If as Roach writes: "working hard all week even slightly dressed up, makes me want to wear t-shirts and jeans on the weekends". Then come weekends, what should I want to wear? Toga beach ware perhaps?.
Also, when distinguishing between the high and low, it is always good to know how to distinguish the difference, the best method is to look to the appetite. Those who seek to gratify the lower appetite are what they make themselves to be. Likewise with those who choose the higher, i.e. the overall good of the man through the will. That is the class signal worth distinguishing.
Also, while it may be true that only in America are the poor fat. It is equally true that a "good physique and tan" signifies a materialist with nothing better to do than drown himself in his narcissism while parading himself at the local government park. There are of course exceptions, but they virtually never reference leisure except to the intellectual life.
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I hope you're just displaying your abject ignorance in your haste to denounce dress codes as "Jansenistic." Those saintly Roman ladies were not transvestites. They wore the stola, not the toga. I would defend your wife as well, but as you are probably one of those barbarians who think it acceptable for women to wear trousers, she probably does wear a toga.
Its the same even in my workplace. Like Ian, I have a reputation for being the best-dressed man in the law courts as I wear a suit to work even on the days that I do not appear in court and my idea of "Casual Friday" is a sports jacket and tie rather than a suit. This, too, is a sad commentary on our society as the courts of justice should be the epitome of formality and decorum.
And last I checked, a classless society was a Marxist thing, not an American thing ...
As for your comment concerning my wife, It was unwise and should not have been written. And I will leave it at that.