This week, strains of the song, “Easter Parade,” run through my mind. In a bygone day, I would have been shopping for a new bonnet to wear Sunday. The church I attended didn’t require women to cover their head but I liked wearing a chapeau.
I enjoy 1940 movies showing the men wearing hats. I think the headgear makes them more attractive. I recently watched the movie, “The Sting,” on TV. In my eyes, fedoras enhanced my favorite actors, Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
When I went to work as an office clerk right after high school in the ’50s, business attire was required. Every day, I wore a skirt and blouse during warm weather and changed my top to a sweater during the colder months. Nylon stockings with a seam up the back of each leg and leather shoes completed my outfit.
During the ’60s, young people convinced the older generation that it didn’t matter how you looked as long as you could do the job. Does the idiom, “clothes make the man,” still apply? Today, there’s a sea of suits in the U.S. Senate except for Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman (D) whose usual garb is shorts and a hoodie.
When camping became a popular, summer, family vacation, churches located near the tent cities relaxed their standards for attire. This trend has crept far and wide. Today, I’m surprised to see what people wear to a house of worship. I’m from the era of Sunday best.
Company manners were also assumed with our good clothes. I wonder if our easing dress standards has also relaxed behavior demands. There seems to be less respect among individuals. The term “road rage” has made me more cautious as a driver. I don’t want to inadvertently tick off another motorist.
Do you have multiple wardrobes or just one?