Dressing Up

I really don't get people who don't dress up when they go out. I'm talking, for the gentleman, a jacket and trousers, and for women, dress and heels (Yes. Even in the dead of Winter. Get an overcoat that falls to the shin! Unless there is a blizzard. At which point, tights and boots shall suffice. And gentlemen, under these conditions you MUST hail a cab while she is indoors. So that the lady is never under the harsh elements for more than 5 seconds. She is precious from head to toe.) Is that too much to ask for? All that I see most of the times are t-shirt, a hoodie, and jeans jeans jeans.

Now, I must admit that often times I wear jeans too. They look fine and are quite rugged and comfortable. And alot more now than ever before, I've accepted women wearing jeans if they have a nice figure. But all of this aside, why do the vast majority of the people dress so down and shabby?!

To me, dressing up shows creativity, style, and individuality and often one's socioeconomic status. It's a signaling mechanism that tells people what tribe you are from and with.

On a practical level, it also widnens one's choice of venues as well. You dress like crap, you will end up sauntering in crappy joints. The tough doors will never allow you in unless you are a model. Well, what's so great about those tough doors? They're pretentious! Well, what's wrong with tough doors? They often (not always) filter out the loud amateurs and that's a pleasant thing.

I love dive bars much as the next guy or gal and one can go dressed as one pleases. T-shirt and jeans. Fine. Whatever.

But if you get bored of the dive bar and the mediocre bar and the mediocre lounge/club. It sure is nice to have the option and the possibility to move upstream to a higher level, less common, less mediocre places.

So, in general, I like to be with people who dress up to go out whenever we go out. Because then the sky's the limit and choices abound. It's like being able to play the entire orchestra from percussion to wind to strings vs. being stuck in one section of the orchestra.

[Live chromatically not monotone.]

Btw, when I go out, I'm dressed up 99% of the time (jacket, trousers, chelsea boots, and sometimes ascots), not only for the practical reasons aforementioned. But I feel that I owe it to myself to treat myself with the highest respect with my god given gift of taste and style and to look presentable to others, and most importantly, to myself.

Also, because most people dress like shit, I feel that I have no choice but to not join in on that zombiehood. I will remain civilized, cognizant, human, individual and vital and fight off the 'free-range humans' (as Hannibal Lechter so correctly described most people) every step of my life. Sometimes, i wish I were a cannibal. So I can eat them as Hannibal did... free range humans in their shirt and jeans.