{"id":16340,"date":"2022-07-09T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=16340"},"modified":"2024-11-19T13:43:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T18:43:37","slug":"the-way-you-wear-your-hat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=16340","title":{"rendered":"The Way You Wear Your Hat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Originally Published July 12, 2020 by Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 <\/em>Brooks Brothers bankrupt? It seems to be true. Demand for suits has plummeted with our newly enforced \u201cwork-from-home\u201d lifestyle, though the trend was already in place. Comfort-in-the-workplace began taking priority in the high-tech industry several years back.<\/p>\n

And why not? Why do we wear the clothes that we wear in the first place? Back in 1975, John T Molloy came out with a book called Dress for Success<\/em>. All about the effect clothing has on a person\u2019s success in life, it gave birth to the concept of \u201cpower dressing.\u201d \u201cNever wear a brown suit,\u201d Molloy advised, \u201cit makes you look weak. Stick to grays and blues, dark.”<\/p>\n

Dress codes were in place for years in most western countries, carefully spelled out in employee handbooks. Often this depended on the amount of interaction an employee had with customers, but not always. One of my sons began working for an insurance company in the 80s; on the phone all day and never in sight of anyone other than his co-workers. He was expected to wear a tie, and the tie could only be a certain color, and of a certain design. Dark pants, white or pastel shirts, and no tennis shoes, only leather, neatly polished. His son now works for that same company, and they have given up on dress codes. Certainly in the last few months, as he does his job from home, the modus operandi<\/em> of millions since March.<\/p>\n

How is enforced work from home affecting attitudes about the importance of what we wear, and how we look? Profoundly, it appears. Looking good \u201con the top\u201d works for many \u2013 great earrings and a necklace that pops look snazzy and professional during on-line team meetings; the comfy pajama bottoms are never seen. The guys, it seems, are going for beards. One grandson, a software engineer with Amazon in Seattle, already sported a neatly trimmed dark beard; it fit well with the workplace culture there and fits equally well now for those team meetings from home. \"\"<\/a>Another grandson, a chemical engineer with Scripps in Florida, sent me his \u201cnew beard\u201d picture today. \u201cIt came out red,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s hot under my mask, but it makes me feel different.\u201d Tee shirts and shorts make up the rest of the outfit; a lab coat overlay when he goes into the building to set up daily tests, masked up, with a little red around the edge. And the work gets done.<\/p>\n

People don\u2019t NEED so many clothes now. With nowhere to go, there is no reason to change outfits so often. From school kids to the workforce, to the retired (like me), casual attire is fast becoming the norm because it is comfortable, less expensive, and easy to care for.<\/p>\n

Cavemen wore funny-looking animal skins for warmth, we assume, but perhaps it was a hunter\u2019s boast. Was that the beginning of \u201cWhat I wear tells you who I am?\u201d If you put a 15th<\/sup>-century king and a lowly peasant on \u201cWhat\u2019s My Line?\u201d would the royal robes and rough-woven country attire give it away before they even spoke a word? Going with this notion, BRANDING became a big-time industry, as we were persuaded that we\u2019d be more successful if we avoided wearing brown, as Molloy said; or more respected if we had the proper logo on our shirt. But even our pets can see through that pretense. \u201cA dog can destroy a Jimmy Choo shoe just as fast as last year\u2019s worn-out loafers,\u201d a friend recently lamented.<\/p>\n

Jobs lost and entire industries in trouble are a heartbreaking effect of the worldwide pandemic swirling around our heads. But perhaps a breather from \u201cdressing up\u201d will lead to a rethinking of priorities. For the industries \u2013 how can we use the resources we have to respond to what people actually need? For the people \u2013 that\u2019s us \u2013 honest choices about what allows us to give the world the best we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

No matter what we wear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally Published July 12, 2020 by Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 Brooks Brothers bankrupt? It seems to be true. Demand for suits has plummeted with our newly enforced \u201cwork-from-home\u201d lifestyle, though the trend was already in place. Comfort-in-the-workplace began taking priority in the high-tech industry several years back. And why not? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3464],"tags":[3218,3584,3589,3583,3590,3586,3588,3585,3587],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16340"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19266,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16340\/revisions\/19266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}