“Style anthropology can explicate a lot of otherwise tricky issues, in some cultures probably more than others. Sort of Like Water For Chocolate, only Weejuns...” LPC
Sunday, August 8, 2010
The Short Sleeve Dress Shirt...A Protracted Discourse
“There is no place for a short sleeve dress shirt. Under no circumstance is it acceptable.
Shut up.”
ADG
"If I want to wear short sleeves, I roll them up."
Oh I could not agree more. Short-sleeved dress shirts, in a formal setting, imply a small-mindedness. That said, I can imagine some hipster, somewhere, sporting one to great ironic success. Elvis Costello, for example, can wear as many as he likes. Yes, he can so.
Reminds me of the white short sleeve dress shirts (with ties) we had to wear while working at Piggly Wiggly in high school. Of course that was not the worst thing you saw at Hoggly Woggly! RTS
ADG, What are you thoughts on wearing short sleeve casual/sport shirts and how do you differentiate them from dress shirts? I would prefer to roll up my sleeves, but when it is Africa hot I'm partial to shorts sleeves for casual environs such as the beach or mountains.
While I would never wear a short sleeve version of an OCBD, I do own a couple of short sleeve shirts with button down collars that were designed for casual wear.
Short-sleeved dress shirts remind me of grades 1-5 when the boys wore them as part of their uniform, topped off by clip-on ties. And they remind me of Martin Short, too, who I love.
And I agree with, LPC, Elvis Costello CAN wear short-sleeved dress shirts to his heart's content! Peace, love, and understanding, ADG!
I'm guessing by the time of this post, that some poor unfortunate soul thought they were dressed for the heat at today's snake handlin'....and instead incurred the Wrath of Max?
I have several short-sleeved shirts. None of them ever appear with a tie, nor shall they as long as they remain in my possession.
Short-sleeved shirts have their place, mainly casual outdoor activities, like gardening, camping, boating, or at a barbecue.
The strangest short-sleeved shirt I ever encountered was a vintage woolen one made by Pendleton. It seems such shirts were part of an unsuccessful line of summer clothes. Hmm, I wonder why that didn't work out so well?
Short-sleeved shirt and tie has the following stereotypes: * Clerk or manager at a grocery store or low-end department store * Old guy from/in the past * Mormon missionary * Nerd
These categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
(Lest anyone get upset, I count myself in the last category. You would too, if you knew my background.)
I have to agree with the Anonymous English Female on this one. Not only is this a hideous combination of shirt and tie, what the hell is that chain thing and those eyes!!! Have not stopped shaking!
Ok Everyone...here's my clarification on where a cut and sewn (anything not knit) fits...If you have a tie on with it...it's a DRESS SHIRT. Otherwise, in most cases, it's fine. I have a short sleeve linen pop-over and a short sleeve madras button down.
Fogey et al...yes...all of your examples are icons of short-sleevedness. Butcept I forgot about the Mormon Missionaries. Their visit to my mom's house last summer is worthy of a post.
Ari...forgot about Falling Down.
LPC...I agree Prunella, but Elvis isn't really "dressed" per se. He's playin' and not always with a tie on ... right?
ADG - Linen pop-over?? Is it light and yellow, going a bit brown round the edges? According to my English-American Dictionary the direct translation of 'pop-over' is Yorkshire Pudding, the traditional accompaniment to Roast Beef. I need a visual explanation - you know how I utterly rely on your blog for the cultural edification of my adopted homeland.
Short sleeves and a tie do not appear in any way as "normal" in a sartorially inclined observers eye.
My nearest analogy is when a visitor first observes proper gentleman's Bermudan dress attire, in Bermuda. It takes some getting used to, but never really catches on as "normal" during a short visit/holiday.
Michael Douglas: OK actor, far left political activist. Ever since John Lennon got shot by a lunatic, he's been on the warpath "for small-arms control," which means he thinks you shouldn't own guns, especially not handguns. In addition to serving, for a time, as the president of Handgun Control, Inc. (now calling itself "Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence"), he has hamfistedly thrown his political views into some of his movie roles, most notably "The American President" & "Falling Down."
His leading role in "Falling Down" is particularly reprehensible. He portrayed a recently-unemployed engineer for the defense industry (evil!) who simply goes berserk. He is a white man (evil!) with a crewcut (repressive, outdated, and evil!) who attacks helpless victims, some of whom are minorities (all of whom either were, or still are, repressed by whites (evil!)). He steals (evil!) guns (evil! evil! evil!) from some gang members (deprived little angels who would have been Boy Scouts and Rhodes Scholars if only they had not been oppressed by "the system" (evil!)), and wreaks further havoc with them (the guns, not the gang members). The moral of the story comes when the police--the only people with a "legitimate" reason to carry guns (evil! evil! evil!)--shoot the crazy white man (evil!).
This fantasy movie ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of legal gun owners, regardless of their race, are responsible and commit no crimes, while it is the criminals--people who, by definition, break the law--who are the ones committing crimes with guns. It also ignores the fact that states that have implemented so-called "shall-issue" laws (i.e., the state shall issue a concealed carry permit to any qualified citizen) have seen a drop in their violent crime rates since the enactment of those laws.
But reality doesn't interfere with the left-wing obsession to rid us of our guns and our right to protect ourselves.
(P.S.: Trying to sneak into Chateau de Fogey unannounced is, shall we say, not recommended.)
YF...........just commenting on Douglas's wardrobe in the movie. No need for the NRA diatribe. I could give a shit about MD's political stance on ANYthing. He's an actor. Son of an actor. He makes movies. They are FICTION. Yeeeeesh.
You are absolutely right to ignore the rantings of the vast majority of actors, musicians, and other famous people who have no particular political expertise, yet use the platform of their fame to spout off with their ill-informed opinions.
I'm just pointing out that even "entertainment" is filled with political content, like Boy George's dissertation on armed conflict called The War Song ("War is stupid...").
33 comments:
Amen brother!
Oh I could not agree more. Short-sleeved dress shirts, in a formal setting, imply a small-mindedness. That said, I can imagine some hipster, somewhere, sporting one to great ironic success. Elvis Costello, for example, can wear as many as he likes. Yes, he can so.
AMEN!!!!!! When I was single and dating if a man showed up with a short sleeved dress shirt I knew it was over.
THANK YOU! I despire short-sleeved dress shirts.
They always look cheap.
Reminds me of the white short sleeve dress shirts (with ties) we had to wear while working at Piggly Wiggly in high school. Of course that was not the worst thing you saw at Hoggly Woggly! RTS
ADG,
What are you thoughts on wearing short sleeve casual/sport shirts and how do you differentiate them from dress shirts? I would prefer to roll up my sleeves, but when it is Africa hot I'm partial to shorts sleeves for casual environs such as the beach or mountains.
While I would never wear a short sleeve version of an OCBD, I do own a couple of short sleeve shirts with button down collars that were designed for casual wear.
~H.
I had no idea they were still available.
Short sleeved dress shirts remind me of the men that work at Piggly Wiggly or Sears...or someone that was in the movie, Revenge of the Nerds.
Short-sleeved dress shirts remind me of grades 1-5 when the boys wore them as part of their uniform, topped off by clip-on ties. And they remind me of Martin Short, too, who I love.
And I agree with, LPC, Elvis Costello CAN wear short-sleeved dress shirts to his heart's content! Peace, love, and understanding, ADG!
Short-sleeved + dress shirt = Oxymoron, with a stress on the moron there. xoxo
I agree! You must have seen a violation recently eh?
ADG - Christ Alive!! There ought to be a health warning in advance of this post! The picture illustrates your point to alarming perfection...
damn straight brother!
I'm guessing by the time of this post, that some poor unfortunate soul thought they were dressed for the heat at today's snake handlin'....and instead incurred the Wrath of Max?
I'd like to post that shot on the Sartorialist, say it's recently done in Milan, and see the comments
Michael Douglas in the movie "Falling Down" 'Nuff said.
I have several short-sleeved shirts. None of them ever appear with a tie, nor shall they as long as they remain in my possession.
Short-sleeved shirts have their place, mainly casual outdoor activities, like gardening, camping, boating, or at a barbecue.
The strangest short-sleeved shirt I ever encountered was a vintage woolen one made by Pendleton. It seems such shirts were part of an unsuccessful line of summer clothes. Hmm, I wonder why that didn't work out so well?
Short-sleeved shirt and tie has the following stereotypes:
* Clerk or manager at a grocery store or low-end department store
* Old guy from/in the past
* Mormon missionary
* Nerd
These categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
(Lest anyone get upset, I count myself in the last category. You would too, if you knew my background.)
I have to agree with the Anonymous English Female on this one. Not only is this a hideous combination of shirt and tie, what the hell is that chain thing and those eyes!!! Have not stopped shaking!
Ok Everyone...here's my clarification on where a cut and sewn (anything not knit) fits...If you have a tie on with it...it's a DRESS SHIRT. Otherwise, in most cases, it's fine. I have a short sleeve linen pop-over and a short sleeve madras button down.
Fogey et al...yes...all of your examples are icons of short-sleevedness. Butcept I forgot about the Mormon Missionaries. Their visit to my mom's house last summer is worthy of a post.
Ari...forgot about Falling Down.
LPC...I agree Prunella, but Elvis isn't really "dressed" per se. He's playin' and not always with a tie on ... right?
My old boss used to wear short sleeved monogrammed dress shirts from Brooks Brothers. He always looked like a 6'1" 225lb child. Most disconcerting.
Yeah, not good. Not good at all.
ADG - Linen pop-over?? Is it light and yellow, going a bit brown round the edges? According to my English-American Dictionary the direct translation of 'pop-over' is Yorkshire Pudding, the traditional accompaniment to Roast Beef. I need a visual explanation - you know how I utterly rely on your blog for the cultural edification of my adopted homeland.
Every time I visit here you've done a new treatment for Michael Douglas. Today it's out with Gordon Gecko and in with Bill Foster. (Falling Down)
SFBayArea
Ooops. Sorry. Didn't notice that Ari had already visited the Falling Down theme.
SFBayArea
Short sleeves and a tie do not appear in any way as "normal" in a sartorially inclined observers eye.
My nearest analogy is when a visitor first observes proper gentleman's Bermudan dress attire, in Bermuda. It takes some getting used to, but never really catches on as "normal" during a short visit/holiday.
NERDS!!!!!
Michael Douglas: OK actor, far left political activist. Ever since John Lennon got shot by a lunatic, he's been on the warpath "for small-arms control," which means he thinks you shouldn't own guns, especially not handguns. In addition to serving, for a time, as the president of Handgun Control, Inc. (now calling itself "Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence"), he has hamfistedly thrown his political views into some of his movie roles, most notably "The American President" & "Falling Down."
His leading role in "Falling Down" is particularly reprehensible. He portrayed a recently-unemployed engineer for the defense industry (evil!) who simply goes berserk. He is a white man (evil!) with a crewcut (repressive, outdated, and evil!) who attacks helpless victims, some of whom are minorities (all of whom either were, or still are, repressed by whites (evil!)). He steals (evil!) guns (evil! evil! evil!) from some gang members (deprived little angels who would have been Boy Scouts and Rhodes Scholars if only they had not been oppressed by "the system" (evil!)), and wreaks further havoc with them (the guns, not the gang members). The moral of the story comes when the police--the only people with a "legitimate" reason to carry guns (evil! evil! evil!)--shoot the crazy white man (evil!).
This fantasy movie ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of legal gun owners, regardless of their race, are responsible and commit no crimes, while it is the criminals--people who, by definition, break the law--who are the ones committing crimes with guns. It also ignores the fact that states that have implemented so-called "shall-issue" laws (i.e., the state shall issue a concealed carry permit to any qualified citizen) have seen a drop in their violent crime rates since the enactment of those laws.
But reality doesn't interfere with the left-wing obsession to rid us of our guns and our right to protect ourselves.
(P.S.: Trying to sneak into Chateau de Fogey unannounced is, shall we say, not recommended.)
YF...........just commenting on Douglas's wardrobe in the movie. No need for the NRA diatribe. I could give a shit about MD's political stance on ANYthing. He's an actor. Son of an actor. He makes movies. They are FICTION. Yeeeeesh.
Fogey...Settle down bossman. We won't take your guns away. Now y'all stop it with the serious stuff here.
Scaleworm...you've inspired another post...thanks.
Anonymous,
You are absolutely right to ignore the rantings of the vast majority of actors, musicians, and other famous people who have no particular political expertise, yet use the platform of their fame to spout off with their ill-informed opinions.
I'm just pointing out that even "entertainment" is filled with political content, like Boy George's dissertation on armed conflict called The War Song ("War is stupid...").
ADG,
Roger, wilco.
I am so inspired by your blog. I would like to buy my brother cologne for his 25th birthday on Saturday. What is your favorite? Thank you. Jacinda
Jacinda...thanks. I don't wear cologne.
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