Changing Face of Fashions and Mannerisms

“Let us go out to a really fancy restaurant. I am in a mood to dress rather formally, have a great dinner, and enjoy some good big band era music. No casual dress, please!”

“Fine,” I said “but the times have changed. People do not dress for dinner, no matter how fancy, at least not in Baltimore.”

The year was 2004. It was our wedding anniversary. So, if my wife wanted to go to a nice formal restaurant, who was I to deny her that pleasure? I started calling the different places near the harbor that met my wife’s criteria.

Years back, when I was a young man, it was unthinkable for anyone to be dressed in their pajamas and go outside to pick up the newspaper. Such an act would have raised the ire of one’s neighbors. It was just not the done thing. Back then, people also dressed to go out. Then, while we slept things changed. All of a sudden, norms of good taste, as T.S. Elliot put it, were totally lost. We were now going through a generation of startup companies mushrooming at an unbelievable pace; instant athlete millionaires; country, rap, and rock artistes that were raking in money as if printed in their basements. Thus, like the Boston Tea Party, good form and taste was thrown overboard. With the changing of the guard, understated elegance became the prerogative of the dinosaurs.

“If you’ve got it baby; flaunt it.”

And the purveyors of these products sure flaunted their money.

“Bling” was “In”.

Restaurants quickly jumping on the trend, in absolute, groveling servility, relaxed their rules. No matter how highbrow you pretended to be—money talked. The new order had money; the old did not. The old order dictated fusty ties, suits, and formal dresses; the new generation dictated track suits, cut outs, giant diamond crosses, and rings that required dark shades to reflect the glare.

So here was I with a major problem. How do I tell my wife that what she considered dressing up for dinner was in this day and age an anachronism? She probably thought that I did not want to go to the trouble of dressing up. I bit the bullet, put on my best charcoal stripped suit, and went to a restaurant located in the Hyatt Regency, overlooking the National Harbor. The food was good; the ambiance was perfect; the diners were all very nice, except they had on jeans and T-shirts; and we looked very much out of place in our stodgy clothes.

Next day, I thought about the present day generation and fashions in general. Why, I thought to myself, do people go about showing their underwear with their pants around their knees? It has changed the normal walk into a shuffle—many a person trip and fall because of the low hanging jeans restricted. Why do they go about holding their crotches in public as if they have some venereal disease, or an itch that will not go away? In our days, people dropped their pants for two reasons: to get a shot in the behind from the doctor or to cohabit with someone. So what does showing your behind stand for? What repressive childhood experience is this supposed to represent?

Finally, shouldn’t there be a rule against indecent exposure—I know it was on the books some time ago. I guess, maybe, we have too many things that are more important. Maybe, I am crazy dwelling on such a minor aspect of life, or maybe the world is wacky?

What do you think? Talk to me!

Riaz Sahibzada