BS: Controversial Apparel Question

Subject: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Wilfred Pennifere
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 05:49 PM

Some days I get positively rebellious! I begin to contemplate doing things I would not normally dare to even consider. Call me "reckless", but that's how it is!

So...I don't want to upset anyone here, but I've had this wild thought running through my mind all week, and I feel I must express it, test the waters, so to speak, before taking the plunge.

Ahem. (Doing some deep breathing to settle my nerves.)

Whew.

Okay.

Well, this is it. Suppose I were, just once, to put on my argyle socks inside out! and go out that way to the greengrocers, to dinner at an upscale restaurant, to pick up my mail at the post office, to my place of work, etc.

Should I risk it? What fallout could result from taking such a bold move? Would it imperil my relations with the young woman at the confectionary, the one I've been thinking of asking to tea for the last 16 months? And what would my mother think?

These are important questions.

The fact is, I feel ready to throw caution to the winds and step out in a way that few in London dare to! I've even had wild thoughts of getting an umbrella that isn't black!!! Perhaps a green or sky blue one. I don't feel ready yet for one with a flowered motif...

Please give me your thoughts.

- Wilfred Pennifere

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 06:27 PM

A high school girl came out of the girl's rest room at school and didn't notice that she had caught the back of her skirt in the back of her pantyhose. She went to class as usual, and sometime later, she discovered, to her horror, that she had been walking the school halls for hours with her panty hose clad legs and butt openly displayed for all to see.

The following day when she got to school, she discovered that a good three-quarters of the other girls at school had their skirts tucked into the top of their pantyhose in back.

She had inadvertently started a fad!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 07:26 PM

Go nuts! Wear brown shoes with a blue suit.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 07:40 PM

Wear tennis shoes to that formal party.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 07:44 PM

The other day I went along to a choir practice wearing a suit and tie.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 09:00 PM

One argyll sock (inside out if you dare- you can make up for it by a black shoe) and the other sock bright red. In a sandal.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 09:20 PM

Ohhh! Shocking!

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Wilfred Pennifere
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 09:47 PM

Ebbie, I am gobsmacked by your suggestions. I may be bold and reckless, but I am not completely mad! I think you're having me on.

- Wilfred Pennifere

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 09:53 PM

Me? Having you on? Me?

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 10:05 PM

For evening wear, may I suggest a cummerbund in a color other than black??? That is of course if the affair is informal. There ARE limits.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Wilfred Pennifere
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 10:55 PM

Oh, my...what a revolutionary idea. I could try out a Navy Blue or Haze Grey cummerbund. Wouldn't that just set them all back on their heels! Mind, I wouldn't do it if I were going to meet the Queen.

- Wilfred Pennifere

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 01:24 AM

Just don't wear white after Labor Day.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 01:58 AM

Wearing one's socks inside out is certainly no more an offense than turning one's skivvies inside out to get another few days wear before washing.

Many decades ago, when skinny neckties were all the thing, I got into the habit of tying my necktie with a full "double windsor" knot, and one morning when I accidentally got an ancient "wider tie" the knot was inconveniently "fat" so I just draped the outer end over the knot instead of tucking it through on the last past. I don't really recall whether I intended to "fix it later" but the following day I observed more than a half dozen other people (almost all men) in the office wearing their ties with no visible knot. The fad persisted for at least a couple of weeks.

Later, the company gave all of us who had worked on a particular "development program" a "commemorative necktie" that was so ugly that I ceased wearing one at all, and have only "tied one on" twice in the three or four decades since.

[The ugly one was an off-shade maroon (moron?) with little bitty white YC-14s (the ugliest airplane ever conceived? until the V22 came along) splattered all over it, for the curious. They offered a coffee cup for the V22 participants, but you had to buy it so I didn't spoil my coffee habit by getting one those couple of decades later.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 02:06 AM

I tried wearing my argyle socks inside out once, and it didn't work very well. They're not smooth on the inside - they have all those stringy, loopy things. My inside-out argyles got caught on a low-lying bush, and I landed on the macadam face-first, thus smashing my spectacles.
Not a pretty sight. Couldn't see at all, in fact.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 05:45 AM

Wilfred, you've obviously reached a 'certain age' when people do things they never dared when young. My advice is 'go for it' mate! From what I saw around London the last time I was there, you'd hardly stand out if you went about in your Y-fronts carrying a stuffed llama.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 07:21 AM

I never wear long trousers indoors. The missus and I are entirely incompatible in the matter of what constititutes fresh air versus draught and room temperature versus tropical swelter. I wear long trousers outdoors only from November to February, except for weddings, which I hate. I never wear shoes, only sandals without socks, except for winter walks when I might wear loose-top socks and old trainers, and for those confounded weddings. I have just one pair of shoes, in a nice black, with velcro fastenings (I don't understand laces), that I've had for fifteen years and which I've never had to polish. I never wear a tie except for the church service bit of weddings, and even then only under protest. I can't stand having the top button of my shirt fastened and I really don't know how to knot a tie. I never tuck my shirt into my trousers (except at those blasted weddings, of course, again under protest). The missus is always very smart and I am a constant embarrassment to her in public. I regard clothing only as something that keeps me legal. Sartorial elegance is not, frankly, one of my strong points. Let me put it this way: I've put more thought into my clothes in this little post than I have in the whole of the past year.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 08:18 AM

It makes no difference whether you wear your argyle socks right-side-out or inside-out. If you wear argyle socks, you're either (A) a person of supreme self-confidence who doesn't care what other people think about much of anything you do, much less your choice of footwear, or (B) a total loser who thinks wearing argyle socks makes you look cool.

If A, then inside-out argyles will be interpreted as a statement of independence. If Billy Bob Thornton or Tom Waits were to wear inside-out argyles, they'd still be two of the coolest people on the planet.

If B, nobody's going to pay any attention to you anyway. You could walk around Trafalgar Square wearing nothing but a single inside-out argyle sock on your dick and nobody would notice.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 08:38 AM

As a very young and silly student, I once knitted a willy sock for a chap I was madly in love with. It was striped with a dear little flap at the end and a button, for when he needed to go to the loo. He wasn't too impressed, sadly. (Sorry about thread drift.)

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 08:46 AM

Remember, blue and green should never be seen without another colour in between.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Mister Smarty Pants
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 08:51 AM

Such adolescent behaviour exhibited by a woman of your tasteful knowledge of haute couture, your social stature and age is not acceptable, and you know it isn't. I don't know what has come over you. Wilfred really think this over. You might seriously think about getting some professional psychiatric advice on this.

Have you by any chance consumed any turtle soup lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Wilfred Pennifere
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 09:15 AM

I'll have you know, Guest, that I am not a woman! "Wilfred" is a man's name. And, no, I have not consumed turtle soup in ages.

Bee-dubya-ell - I am considering your A & B categories as listed and described above, and frankly I'm a bit worried. No one has ever compared me to either Billy Bob Thornton or Tom Waites.

- Wilfred Pennifere

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 10:34 AM

For a while, wearing mismatched socks was a fad among teenage girls. An older gentlemen, observing one doing that, mused (quiped), "I wonder if she has an identical pair in a drawer at home?"

Wear whatever makes you happy. I think the palette for men's clothing should include all the colors and not be limited to black, brown, gray, blue, and white. I like seeing men wearing other colors, especially yellow and pink.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 10:52 AM

hmmmmm.. 'Wilfred's' musings remind me of someone... hmmmmm.... let me think....

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 10:56 AM

Wilfred, I do think that wearing your Decorations would be color enough for most occasions. Your OBE, your Knight's Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, your Grand Cross and Collar of the Order of the Falcon, and your Order of the Golden Spur, along with your military honors, should be quite enough color for anyone. Young ladies (and older ones also) should become quite giddy.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Mister Smarty Pants
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 03:06 PM

Wilfred, I know you are a woman in drag. So smarten up and dress appropriately even if you have a penchant for wearing men's clothes.

BTW, I am not a Guest. I am Smarty Pants and that is Mister Smarty Pants to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 03:26 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 03:29 PM

Not really something we Americans can address--you would have been shot your first time out wearing argyles, and the question would have never come up.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 04:27 PM

Wilfred, as an alternative to Rapparee's suggestion, you could always have your medals tattooed on your chest and go shirtless.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Wilfred Pennifere
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 12:32 AM

You're a cheeky sod, aren't you, Mister Smarty Pants? Well, don't think you can provoke me without consequences. I am a junior accountant at Wellington and Fitch! I will only take just so much from the likes of you.

Rapparee, I am gobsmacked by your comments about the medals! You must have me confused with someone else (?). But who? The only award I have to my credit is for winning Silver 2 years ago at the annual Tiddlywinks meet in Slough. Some poxy-faced wretch from Kent beat me out for the Gold, sad to say.

Sic transit gloria Penniferei.

- Wilfred Pennifere

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 01:40 AM

I must say that I don't understand why men are *still* wearing neckties. From a protect-the-shirt-front from back when shirts were dear, not to mention hard to iron, to today's anything-goes, why has the throat throttler survived? Until men come 'round to admitting that they too like that spot of color, I will never understand.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 03:29 AM

Ebbie ~~ Going back quite a few posts: nevereverever sox with sandals! The idea! {& I spend most of my life either in sandals or sheepskin moccasins, or, at home, mainly barefoot; someone I had known for some time asked me not long since if I actually possessed any socks!}

Someone above quotes that tiresome old blue-green-never-seen adage, which was a bit of what Betjeman called ghastly-good-taste* from the 1930s-40s, long since superseded by such as Libertys, House of Fraser, et al. Funny how these passing taste-fads sometimes get adopted as a sort of law of nature, & quoted as unarguable truths by the sort of silly people who will think they know best about everything.

~M~

*Before someone troubles to try to put me down by pointing it out, I know Betjeman originally used the GGT phrase as title for a book on architecture; but it is a useful & adaptable locution nevertheless.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Charmion
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 01:19 PM

Blue and green appear side by side in all the very best landscapes. If Mother Nature likes to wear them together, well, that's quite good enough for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Dexter Willoughby
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 01:31 PM

MthGM - Bollocks! There is only one good reason NOT to wear socks with sandals, and that is to save on the cost of wearing out one's socks. I shudder at the sight of a gent wearing socks without sandals. Do you think I want to see your ugly feet and untrimmed toenails? Hardly! Furthermore, if you wear sandals barefoot in warm or hot weather, they stick to the soles of your feet every time you step down, then unstick as you take a step, then stick again. It's unpleasant, rather like Chinese water torture. On top of that, your feet get dirty from road and floor dust a lot faster without the socks, and they can get sunburnt on a bright day. Insects can bite your feet much more easily sans socks. Only absolute pillocks wear sandals without socks.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: DMcG
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 01:34 PM

I once went for an interview wearing one black show and one brown. They must have been desperate as they offered it to me...

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: DMcG
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 01:36 PM

.. shoe ...

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 06:25 PM

Guest Dexter, you must have very sweaty feet. I'd have thought your feet would be nice and cool if left bare under your sandals. I wear sandals without socks for about 8 months of the year, until it's too cold outside to bear it any longer. I like my toesies to be free with plenty of air circulating. It's funny really that we always want our clothes to be symmetrical. There's no reason why we couldn't wear a different sock on each foot, or different gloves on each hand. Even sleeves and trouser legs could vary. It would make for more variety and interest. I might open a shop selling harlequin clothes. It may catch on!

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jul 13 - 01:18 PM

DMcG - LOL!!!!!!!!! That's incredible! You should try a series of job interviews doing this sort of thing with mismatched shoes, mismatched socks, shirt on backwards, your tie around your forehead instead of around your neck, your belt tied up around your nipples, etc...see how it goes...document the results...publish a humorous book about it after 50 or so such episodes and get rich.

Eliza - I think we like symmetry because it looks natural (and healthy). After all, most creatures in nature do exhibit a beautiful symmetry in both color and form (there are some exceptions, however, like lobsters and crabs, whose 2 large claws are not symmetrical). Symmetry has balance, and balance is usually a good thing. So there's no practical reason for not wearing different socks, but there is an aeasthetic and a "feeling" reason for it...it doesn't "feel" right, unless you are deliberately out to challenge an existing cultural norm, in which case for YOU it does feel right, just because it doesn't usually feel right.

I've worn sandals with and without socks. In very hot places, like Trinidad, I'm worn them without socks. In more temperate places, usually with socks.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 Jul 13 - 02:58 PM

You're right, LH, we like symmetry because it looks 'normal' and 'healthy'. I think that's why jesters in the Middle Ages wore harlequin clothing, specifically and deliberately to look 'odd' and therefore droll. As I get older (and older) I care less and less what I wear as long as it's comfortable, and decent. A very wealthy chap we know wears stuff that both he and even his late dad wore for years. You'd say he was a homeless person, but he's really quite rich. So one can't judge by appearances!

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: beardedbruce
Date: 01 Jul 13 - 03:07 PM

Ebbie,

"I must say that I don't understand why men are *still* wearing neckties"

It is quite simple. To be properly dressed when in Management requires the wearing of a necktie, in order to cut off the oxygen flow to the brain. Just look at the decisions that management usually comes up with. Please not that the non-managment individuals do NOT wear them, and thus accomplish productive labor, within the bounds of the management directives.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 04:53 AM

To add real panache to ones footwear, wear sandals with ONE sock and change the sock from one foot to the other at random intervals.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 06:00 AM

I am a no-tie guy. I call it a corporate leash, part of the uniform. Funeral parlours and funerals only.

I have a long story about how and why I became a no-tie guy. I'll tell it after the mirth subsides. In the meantime... youse guys are a riot! Great thread!

I say, if Dog had wanted us to go barefoot or semi-barefoot, he wouldn't have given us socks and shoes. I wear one green sock and one red sock on Kissmeass Day when I have to visit relatives. Red sock, right foot, of course. I an step with mismatched sock ettiquette.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 06:35 AM

Hahahahaha gnu! So you have a 'Port Sock' and a 'Starboard Sock' eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 08:05 AM


DMcG - LOL!!!!!!!!! That's incredible! You should try a series of job interviews doing this sort of thing

I have, but always accidentally. For another I went for an interview where I had to stay overnight beforehand and in the morning discovered I had a choice in going in my travel clothes or jeans with a formal suit jacket, since I'd left the suit trousers behind ...

As you may have gathered, my appearance is not high in my list of priorities.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,DMG
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 08:06 AM

Oops, that was me above

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: GUEST,Auntie Beenthere Donethat aka VaTam
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 08:06 AM

I find the fad of exposing underclothes appalling as well as a bit peculiar. Lads with trousers hanging well below the Calvin Klein line. Ladettes vulgarly displaying their Ann Summers beneath filmy blouses.

I am still shocked by the very idea of onsies with a trap door I mean if you are covering it all wrist to ankle then you should bleeding well cover it all. And crotchless panties?

The most outrageous thing I ever did regards unmentionables is to unknowingly don (and wear all day) 2 foundation garments (aka brassieres). Perhaps I needed the extra support.

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 08:15 AM

Another outfit I wore on occasions was deliberately crazy. It consisted of a tight jumper which was top-to-bottom horizontal hoops around 3cm wide, all bright colours, combined with a set of trousers which were vertically striped some 1cm wide, albeit only in two quieter colours, finished off with a set of hooped leg-warmers, again nice bright colours.

This wasn't original - my two flatmates adopted the look first ...

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 08:23 AM

Me, at 15 in 1968. Maroon suede shoes with black leather piece down the front, maroon tight trousers with black pin stripes, dark blue satin shirt and white lace cravat-ish type thing, dark blue cape with maroon silk lining and to top it all off a rolled umbrella. So I DO know all about fashion and dress sense.

Must have made my parents proud :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 08:31 AM

Sounds most striking!

It makes me think of those games 'If someone was a car, what sort of a car would they be?' With no justification at all, I can imagine LH in that outfit! Joe Offer seems more a rocking-chair-and-slippers sort of guy. MtheGM wouldn't be seen without his dinner jacket (not a tux, I might add!) Your images may vary ...

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 08:39 AM

I had done the Wedding Car thing for a friend and was suitably dressed in grey suit and tie with a Chauffeurs cap, well you have to look the part don't you' as I was driving a 1950 Daimler. I went on to the local Folk Festival afterwards not thinking about how I was dressed.The first concert I went into Roddy Felton stopped mid song"Facking Hell Nic av you started working for the P R S" I had at least taken the cap off

Subject: RE: BS: Controversial Apparel Question
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:04 AM

We are almost related by initials DMcG - Can I think of you as my Scottish cousin?

DtG