Sunday, June 15, 2014

When Men Were In Charge

Look at the picture above. I first saw it on Lady Lydia's blog years ago and it became one of my favourite paintings. It's called Nordic Summer Evening and dates from 1899. Please pay attention to the clothes the man is wearing. Compare them to summer fashions for men for 2014 (image from Dolce and Gabbana Spring-Summer 2014 collection):

Can you notice the difference? Yes, I know there are still men who wear a suit (mostly for work-related purposes), but it's not what we see in the streets daily. What we see daily, is more like this (please pay attention to his shoes (the lack of) and worse.

The man in the picture above looks stern and projects an image of authority. There is nothing childish or frivolous about him. He looks in front of himself without smiling and produces an impression that he always means business.His dark suit is contrasted to the white dress of the lady and the soft lines of her face and hair. While she represents feminine softness, he is an image of masculine firmness. He looks in charge and his body language adds to it.

Nowadays we have grandfathers looking like toddlers. Much has been said on the topic of immodest and unfeminine clothes women are wearing nowadays, but practically no attention is given to grown up men wearing capri pants, baggy shorts, oversized t-shirts in all colours of the spectrum including pink with childish slogans (or even worse, wife beaters) and this hideous fashion of men wearing flip flops.

Outside of the business world, there is little dignity left in the way men dress. A grown up man is an authority figure, or as they used to say, a lord of creation, and he should look as such if he wants to be taken seriously.

13 comments:

  1. As the man is the head of the household, his family will tend to naturally dress in similar attire. So if a man would like his wife to dress less slovenly then perhaps the change needs to begin with him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the society would only win if both men and women dressed less casually. There is a place for casual clothes like shorts on the beach and the like, but not as everyday wear:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. My heart is happy at the sight of men I. Dignified clothes, like in the painting. I love theor suits, and even in casual wear, their vests and button front shirts, twill trousers. Even the jeans and western wear is masculine.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree, casual wear doesn't really have to be sloppy, a man doesn't have to wear suits all the time, just normal trousers + shirts, and even jeans are an improvement over baggy shorts for daily wear.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would like to point out that they both look dignified in the painting, just compare the dress the lady is wearing with female wear now, it's just that there is so much written already about the necessity to improve women's clothes/modesty, but little is ever said about men.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Agree completely, Sanne.

    Young men today are appalling in their fashions, esp. the baggy pants that look like they're falling down... Is anything more indicative of a complete lack of any masculine pride or sense of shame than such?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I look at the runway fashions for men, and I am absolutely convinced the designers are trying to turn the men into women. I would be ashamed to be seen with a man dressed in most of what I see on the male models. Men need to look like men!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Will, unfortunately, it's not only young men...

    And designers have been promoting androgyny for quite some time now, they were quite successful in persuading women to wear masculine attire but still haven't managed to dress the men in skirts, so they went for the toddler look instead.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I will take that as a compliment :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Maggie "trying to turn the men into women"

    There's a reason for that: since most of the male clothing designers are homosexuals, they project what they personally into their designs, thinking that is what everyone else likes. So you see waif-like, creatures - sometimes in couples -that you often can't be certain are men or women.

    ReplyDelete
  11. On second thought, I had to delete a comment by Standing as it goes against my blog rules. Sorry about it, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  12. On second thought, I had to delete the comment by Standing as it goes against blog rules.

    ReplyDelete