I come from an older and more formal background, as if my readers and friends largely don’t know that already.
In my collegiate first year English class, when we were reading/studying The Great Gatsby, Professor Mansfield looked me and said, “You’re quietly formal, like Nick Caraway,” or words generally to that effect. When I worked in Washington, D.C., I was perfectly comfortable in a tie, collared shirt, and a three-piece suit (if with polished boots), and I haven’t owned or worn a pair of jeans in more than forty years. If I’m doing grubby work, it’s in sweatpants and work boots.
That conservatism extends largely to my writing, except for a few years when I experimented with onomatopoeia in my first fantasy novels (which, as many readers know, was not received as well as it might have been). “All right” will always be two words for me, because I shudder and wince when I see “alright” in print. I also like the pluperfect, which my editor does not.
To me, a collared long-sleeved shirt was just a shirt, but for several years now, and possibly longer (since I don’t keep track of changes in fashion terminology), those plain shirts that went with suits are now what the menswear companies term “formal” or “dress shirts.” I always thought formal or dress shirts were the pleated white shirts that went with tails and tuxedos.
Since I work from the office in my house these days, I no longer wear suits to work, but my normal attire consists of slacks, collared shirt, and vest, and, of course, polished cowboy boots, certainly nothing I’d consider especially dressy. I may add a sports coat if I go out on a chilly day. But when my wife the professor and I go out to eat in our usual work clothes, more than half the time, someone wants to know why we’re all dressed up. Usually, I suspect, it’s more on account of what she’s wearing.
This amuses me, because what we wear now would have been considered excessively casual in our twenties and thirties. But then, what most people wear on airplanes today would likely have denied them boarding back then. Denying boarding for totally inappropriate attire still might be a good idea, even if it does come from a fashion dinosaur.
