No mystery left in clothing
More and more, it seems, we need new dictionaries. For example, think of how the words “informal clothing” have changed. They used to mean a little less formal. Now it apparently means sloppy, even dingy, badly fitting and too often reminiscent of gym clothes.
Even today’s travelers on airplanes are apt to wear sweatshirts, T-shirts, athletic shoes and, much too often, the ubiquitous jeans. (No matter jeans look terrible on too many of them.) An older man asked me once, rather plaintively, why didn’t women look in rearview mirrors when they were wearing jeans. But I’m afraid it’s obvious most of us don’t.
I can remember in the ‘40s I flew to Los Angeles. I wore a tailored suit, nylons and high-heeled shoes. All the other travelers were dressed equally nicely. I was newly married, but I couldn’t help notice how attractive most of the men (as well as the women) were. Let’s face it, the old adage about clothes making the person remains true.
My generation thought it was exciting just to go downtown shopping. We always got dressed up. Everywhere we looked, there were attractively dressed people. We usually ate lunch in one of the downtown’s restaurants and even the food was special.
Many times we ordered small casseroles of curried chicken or especially good spaghetti. I know the food wouldn’t have tasted so good if we had not all been dressed well and were comfortable with how we looked.
An older man told me the other day he misses dressing up to go out to eat. He said it had been so much fun to dress up and to be with a woman who dressed up. I know just how he feels. Even for going to most of our restaurants now, we don’t feel the need to dress up. Why would we, when at the next table are apt to be a group of people who could easily have just come from playing a softball game.
A huge number of younger and middle-aged people appear now to let it all “hang out.” If they’re overweight, and a distressingly large number of them are, it doesn’t seem to occur to them that jeans and midriff-exposing clothes are just not suitable for their particular bodies. And today’s clothes, the ones meant to reveal navels, are perhaps the most ridiculous of today’s fashions. How can today’s women possibly be fooled by that hype?
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Jackie Kennedy’s father told her when she was young that every woman should try to be a little mysterious. I always remember Marlene Dietrich when she was older and wearing a tuxedo pants suit. She looked both glamorous and, yes, a bit mysterious. She obviously knew what was guessed at was inevitably more desirable than what could be too easily seen.
Most females today – those who have ever had it – have lost their feminity. It’s too bad and is, it seems to me, a loss so big it can’t even be calculated. Although most of them will probably not realize it until it’s too late to change. Or to matter.
Most of today’s popular and far-from-feminine clothes definitely do nothing to enhance women in anyone’s eyes. And, unfortunately, what we now see is what we get.
However, the big question is, who could possibly want it?