I feel I should give my perspective on what is fashionable and what is tasteful given some of my statements on Forrest's sandals post. I have too much to say to make it one comment on the post. For those who are keeping score, I am simply making the point that we shouldn't judge people's sense of taste because they wear sandals with white socks. First, I need to provide some background.
From a young age I have always equated coolness with shallowness. To some extent I still do. I know this is a horrible generalization, but it is very easy to believe this when I observe that cool people are frequently cool because they are attractive, athletic, artistic, confident, or have money. While some cool people have depth, depth never seems to make a person cool. I, like everyone, wanted to be popular, but part of me has never let me be cool because I believed to do so would be to become shallow. I may not have been right most of the time, but that doesn't change how it has impacted my perspective.
Those who have been reading my blog from the start will probably remember that in one of my first posts I said that I believe I am not uncool. That is mostly true. I also don't believe I am cool, though. I have tried hard to simply be myself. No matter what people say, being yourself really doesn't make you cool. It just keeps you from being an uncool poser. For many people being themselves really does mean wearing sandals with white tube socks.
Fashion, from what I can tell, is simply a set of arbitrary and very fluid rules that a bunch of ultra-cool people get to set, and that the rest of the cool people follow and enforce by making fun of the uncool people. Fashion in itself is not a bad thing. God made people to like fashionable things. God also gave us all individual tastes, though.
Taste is what expresses the individual. Taste can be colored by fashion, but I would suspect that you are very easily manipulated if your sense of taste is completely fashionable. Taste is your opportunity to express what being you really is. For me expressing who I am is wearing jeans and a cotton t-shirt and kicking back because I value comfort over appearance. I am not implying that valuing appearance is bad. I am simply describing what my tastes are.
Even if I were the most fashionable person alive, who would I be to judge someone else's taste in clothing or anything else having to do with fashion? Who would I be to assess the value of that person's taste or to assess the value of the person based on what my tastes are or on what I believe is fashionable? I might as well judge him on his taste in food or music or women. It is almost like telling a guy that he is free to date any girl he wants so long as she is a redhead. If he dates a girl who is blonde or brunette, that is just disturbing.
What do sandals with white socks express? To me it is the expression of a person who thumbs his nose at convention. It is the expression of a man of action who don't want to expose his feet, but wants to be able to slip in and out of his footwear quickly. It is the expression of--okay, I really don't know because I don't wear sandals, but it is the expression of something.
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10 comments:
Uh-oh, I think we hit a chord here. It looks like you spent a childhood trying to figure this out.
Are you bitter?
You seem to be very shallow and judgemental to people that put a little effort and thought into dress. Do you have the same thoughts for people who decorate their house according to HGTV?
I thought the whole "cool" issue died when we graduated high school. Why are you still hanging on to it? I mean really who worries about being cool? I mean the whole college and 20-30 age is about being yourself.
Who am I to judge? I can and I will because I am a critic. I am a designer. I like to make things look good. I judge buildings, that have serious architectural errors. Bad porportions, bad mix of styles, cheap materials, bad scale. I also learn from them. There are certain rules for design that if you follow will allow you to create something eyepleasing.
There are certain rules for dressing ourselves that if you follow, you will be eyepleasing no matter the style or the coolness factor. It is just a matter of being presentable.
Everyone knows that you don't wear tube socks with dress shoes and slacks to church or a wedding or to work right! Our moms taught us this rule and I don't consider my mom to be among the elite uber-cool group that decides what is cool and forces the rest of us to follow. Well, tube socks and sandals is another rule that our mothers passed down.
If we can't make fun of people, what fun is people?
I have loads of pictures to make fun of myself. I despised the so-called cool in highschool. I was always in left field and I loved it.
That is enough for now, I hope you can lighten up and accept these absolute truths to dress etiquette.
I think this is one of those conversations where you should just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
Could fashion rules be equated to legalism in the church? One man's faith allows him to wear tube socks with dress shoes another man's faith does not. We shouldn't judge either way. What if someone can't afford to buy dress socks? What if all he has is tube socks? Just something to think and laugh about.
I am not really worked up about this, but I do care about it. :)
I already said that I have nothing against being fashionable, just the picking on the people who are not fashionable annoys me.
If everyone who decorated their houses according to HGTV made fun of the people who did not, then that would be wrong.
"There are certain rules for dressing ourselves that if you follow, you will be eyepleasing no matter the style or the coolness factor. It is just a matter of being presentable."
Who gets to set those rules? As I said, this is a situation where ultra-cool people set rules and expects everyone else to follow them.
"Everyone knows that you don't wear tube socks with dress shoes and slacks to church or a wedding or to work right!"
Weddings are an expression of the bride, so that is not a time to express your individuality.
"Well, tube socks and sandals is another rule that our mothers passed down."
Obviously, some mothers didn't. You can't assume that since your Mom told you this fashion rule that everyone must follow it.
I am fine with joking about people if it is not in judgment of them. I can take it and dish it, so I have no real problem with it. Cool people need to be careful, though, that they do not unintentionally (or intentionally) squelch the individual expressions of those who go against the grain.
If you want to wear 'em, more power to you. :)
Personally, I don't like wearing dress shoes, so I wouldn't have the urge to wear them with sweats.
just the picking on the people who are not fashionable annoys me.
...again this has nothing to do with fashion and no one is picking on or judging, just laughing.
The whole HGTV comment was in regard that you judged people who dressed cool as shallow.
Who gets to set those rules? As I said, this is a situation where ultra-cool people set rules and expects everyone else to follow them.
This is a warped sense of reality. Cool people don't set rules and expect others to follow. Most cool people don't like others to follow. They loose thier uniqueness. Mothers, generations, culture, etiquette, good design set these rules.
Weddings are an expression of the bride, so that is not a time to express your individuality.
Wrong! You are always expressing your idiviuality. This has nothing to do with what I said. Everyone knows that you should not wear white socks with dress shoes and slacks to WORK, WEDDINGS, etc. Period!
Obviously, some mothers didn't. You can't assume that since your Mom told you this fashion rule that everyone must follow it.
Yes, I can. When I say mothers, I am not necessarily talking about individual mothers, but the idea that it is an old truth that has always been and is passed down from generation to generation. Yes, you don't have to follow it. No one has a gun pointed to your head. It is just good advice. Again, cool people aren't forcing you to dress a certain way, but mothers are giving good advice on how to look presentable. So, get off the cool people.
I am fine with joking about people if it is not in judgment of them.
Has anybody judged them around here? Has there been an attack on character or judgement?
Cool people need to be careful.
That is assuming you can judge who the cool people are. Point them out to me, so I can watch them forcing their rules down uncool peoples throat. Again this is very High Schoolish. As far as I know, people don't care about what's cool and hate celebrities.
It's hard to recognize when I say I'm wrong because it happens so rarely. :) I readily admit that I have been wrong in my assessment that cool people are shallow. That is my natural reaction that I have to continually fight, though.
About the weddings, work, etc. You really aren't supposed to express yourself so much there. Not worth arguing about, though.
There may not have been any judgments. I don't know.
All I am concerned about is that people are encouraged to be themselves rather than something that everyone else thinks they should be. If I were a person who wore socks with sandals and I was told that I was breaking some fashion rule I would feel judged. If I was just teased by friends in a joking manner, then I would simply feel that I was the butt of jokes because my tastes were different. In my opinion, being the butt of jokes isn't a bad thing.
Magrelo wears tube socks with khaki's to church. For shame!
We also can never find Frogger's one pair of black socks on Sunday mornings. So, it's black pants and black shoes with white socks. Everyone sings Michael Jackson songs to him all morning. I'm cleary not setting good mom rules! :)
Wow, and I would have just said socks with sandals is granola. (And something I don't care for...)
wish I could hang for all the discussions but alas, another time
I don't think Jesus wore socks with his sandals...
Great. That probably means I should wear a beard.
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