It’s been in litigation for months now. Supernova Media, the producer and financier for the movie, is suing Joseph G. Pia and Frank E. Johnson for fraud. They allegedly stole millions of dollars and tried to sell the film overseas behind the backs of the investors!
Joseph Di Palma and Forbes Billionaire Stewart Rahr are the Executive Producers. Claire Forlani, Julianne Michelle, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Louis Gossett Jr., and Eric Roberts star in the film.

This isn’t so say that Mr. Engelhardt’s interpretation is wrong, I just mean to add that there are other factors of etiquette that interfere with full absorption of what I assume are Mr. Tucker’s goals.

Understood in that light, it’s not that Jeff is saying you should wear a suit all the time regardless the circumstances. Obviously, factory workers should not wear suits while they are at work. They should wear practical clothes. But, when those same factory workers go out on the town (eating out/shopping/etc.), they should take off their jeans and t-shirts and put on a suit. Naturally, there are some people (academics like me, for example), who can wear a suit (or, at the very least, a sports coat) basically all the time, and many of us should. After all, my job is closely connected to working with other people in a “public” type of setting. I’m teaching classes, giving presentations, etc. It makes sense, if I’m going to be presenting myself to the world, that I should try to be presentable. On the other hand, when I’m lazing around my apartment, there’s little reason for me to look presentable.

The problem with our society is that we believe that “practical” clothes are “presentable”. We rarely, if ever, make the opposite error. (I see far more people wearing jeans in the shopping mall than I see wearing pinstripes while they garden.) So, Jeff’s articles are written to correct the error our society actually makes: we’re inappropriately informal in our dress. That’s not to deny that the opposite error is possible. It’s just not the error that we’re making.

Naturally, feel free to correct me if my interpretation is wrong…

As Barney from “How I Met Your Mother” would say: Suit up!

In 1900 it was fashionable to be fat because it showed you were a professional and not a laborer. Are we going to lobby for that fashion?

Robes and togas were once popular dress standards for the business and aristocracy. They are a lot more comfortable, too. I could go for that dress standard, but I doubt it will catch on.

Dress standards are made up by those who hold power. It doesn’t matter what they are, we who grovel must follow suit.

Yes, I agree we should dress for success. No, I don’t think we have perfected business attire for all eternity. A century from now people may look back and laugh at what we thought dressing for success meant. Heck, I already laugh at it now.

I don’t think they were, were they?

Men’s business dress has changed very little since the early 19th century when trousers came in. Changes in length of coat, lapel width, collars up or down, tie width, but pretty much it’s the same. Nothing like the changes in women’s wear. My work wear appears casual, but if I jjust put on a jacket and tie I’m dressed appropriately for any business or government occasion.

The author is right, in that business attire has become scandalously informal by comparison to the 1930′s (a time, thanks to the Duke of Windsor and men like him) when the daywear style benchmarks were set. However, the styles of that time were just as scandalously informal to those who occupied the world of business in the 1860′s.

The fact is, society is becoming less formal, and has been for the last few centuries. And ranting about what slobs we’ve all become just draws the criticism away from where it belongs: with the well-dressed men who own and run the Federal Reserve.

“Interesting…Casual Fridays at Goldman Sachs are over?”

Perhaps I should be selling Goldman Sachs and be buying Goldtoe Socks.

I recall saturday night live doing a joke along these lines “One good thing about a depression…homeless men start wearing hombergs.”

I was talking to a law professor who attended law school in the 1930s. The students wore suits at all times, even when meeting among themselves, and the only concession to the summer heat without air conditioning was taking the jacket, but not the vest, off in casual settings.

It is amazing how everything from dress styles, to art to food to architecture are always such a sign of the times. Long frumpy below the knee skirts are in this season. “Poverty chic!”