How is it that the suit and tie is almost global? With the exception of military leaders and some of those guys in the South Pacific who wear skirts, just about every male politician from every country in the world wears one, for instance, and they all look almost identical. As it happens, I need ... [More]
Dropped through Myer last Sunday (last day of their stocktake sale) to see if they had any nice work shirts or ties on special. I hate clothes shopping, but discounts numb the pain. Saw a shirt I thought looked all right. Special price: $29.95. Pelaco, okay brand. Take to counter. Extra super discount: rings up ... [More]
Should I feel guilty for buying my kids secondhand school clothes? They’re in very good condition — no doubt donated by kids who have legitimately had no use for them anymore because they’ve grown or left the school. $2 per item, about 90% cheaper than buying new. Reduce, re-use, recycle, right? So I’m covering 2 ... [More]
My dad didn’t wear ties during the later part of his working life, and certainly doesn’t now he’s retired. So I was taught to tie a tie by Norm, who worked at Hattams in Elsternwick when we bought my first school uniform for Melbourne High, in summer ’84-’85. I’ve been thinking for a while about ... [More]
I get some terrific comments on this blog. Quite a few of them, too. The database reckons over 6000, though I think there might be some suspected spams in there. Then again, there are some old comments from 2003 that haven’t been imported into WordPress yet. Here’s some followups on some recent comments, and on ... [More]
Does everybody have a pair of emergency underpants? You know, the undies that are not actually unwearable, but are far from preferable? Not actually falling apart, but maybe the elastic’s stretched just a teensy bit too far, or they were a new brand you purchased that didn’t turn out to be as comfortable as your ... [More]
Ties are essentially useless. Purely decorative. I bought one yesterday. Nice. What I can’t quite come to terms with is men who wear bow ties for everyday business-wear. It just looks wrong. It’s like they’re trying to scream “I’m whimsical!!” (Awaiting comments from all my bow tie-wearing readers…)
Following up from yesterday… In many cities, it’s common for white-collar male workers to wear shirt+tie, though casual Friday is becoming more popular in some companies. For some people, it appears that even the suit jacket is compulsory, including on the hottest days. From what I can see, this primarily seems to include (male) politicians ... [More]
I can understand why some white-collar women wear runners on their commute given how uncomfortable and impractical some of the shoes they wear around the office look. I don’t understand why some men feel the same way though. It’s not like they wear platform shoes or high heels at work. (Unless their work is odder ... [More]
I’m not going to name names, but it seems this needs spelling out. Ladies, DO NOT pull a gentleman’s tie. It’s not funny. It’s just annoying. A tie is a highly-tuned precision garment. Sometimes it’s a great deal of effort to get it looking just right. Sometimes it’s even a great deal of effort to ... [More]
(All the posts from the Sydney trip are now online) Read an article yesterday about new non-tuck school shirts to avoid the endless problems of students not tucking their shirts in. Seems to make sense, particularly in summer. As far as I recall, during my school-uniformed years (years 9-12), while most didn’t, I did tuck ... [More]
In an amusing conversation the other week: 25 is the new 18. 36 is the new 25. Cycling is the new golf. Dunno if all this is really true, but I’m discovering for myself that brown is the new blue. There was a stage in my life when I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing brown. ... [More]
In my neck of the woods, drycleaners seem to have a permanent “three for the price of two” deal going on. It’ll cost you about $7 to get one item cleaned, but about double that for two or three. It means when I have an item that is in dire need of cleaning, I’ll pontificate ... [More]
Holeproof brand socks aren’t really holeproof. They get holes just as much as any other brand of sock. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve done something of a purge of socks with holes in the toes. I had plenty, and I have a sneaking suspicion that many of them were Holeproof brand. I didn’t ... [More]
Damn it was cold this morning. Before leaving for work, I made sure to find my gloves and scarf for the walk to the station through the fog. (You remember the scarf, right?) Off to the Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet tonight. Not sure how I wangled seats in row AA, but looking forward to ... [More]
It used to be just construction workers that wore high-visibility tops. Now they adorn police on traffic duty, tram/train customer service people, cyclists, truck drivers, builders, couriers, and so on. They do make a person more visible (spectacularly so at night), even if they do little else. Railway industry people wryly observe that some of ... [More]