We don't bother much about dress and manners in England, because as a nation we don't dress well and we've no manners.
-- George Bernard Shaw, "You Never Can Tell" (1898), act I
That's a surprising statement, based on movies you'd think England was the one place where dress and manners really matter.
Not that you'd notice here in Northern England, around here people think they are Dressing Up when they change from track suit to blue jeans. :-)
(I'm no fashion beacon, but at least I haven't worn track suits or blue jeans since I was a kid.)
Anon said:
Most people wear jeans, it doesn't make you trailer trash. I only wear a suit to the office.
Yes, Steve Jobs even wears them on stage. And maybe it's just because most people wear them that I don't like them. And to be precise, it's only blue jeans I dislike. Black, red, grey, white, or green jeans I don't mind. Heck, I've worn black and green ones myself. I just think the blue variety is so aggressively blah.
Strange, Track Suits went out in the 80's, and were replaced by shell suits!
ReplyDeleteThey have manners, just not good manners.
Most people wear jeans, it doesn't make you trailer trash. I only wear a suit to the office.
ReplyDeleteI've just looked up "shell suit". Good grief, that's bad.
ReplyDeleteI only wear a suit to the office
ReplyDeleteHmm, last few places I worked, the CEO wore a suit a very few times.
Posh office clothes around here are Dockers (tan coloured slacks, not Doc Martin boots), and a polo/golf shirt. Suits are more oft only for point of contact people around here, and then it's flexible. Sales reps generally are suited, as are some FAE's.
For the most part office clothes are jeans and T-shirt in the winter, and shorts and T-shirt in the summer.
See, shell suits look like track suits, but are something grander. I always associate track suits with "plastic Scallies", though not even the N Wirral one, but more the Ellesmere Port mob.
Hey, I never thought folks from Ormskirk counted as PS also. It's all pants!
Cool.
ReplyDeleteCool what? Shell Suits?
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe it's just because most people wear them that I don't like them. And to be precise, it's only blue jeans I dislike. Black, red, grey, white, or green jeans I don't mind. Heck, I've worn black and green ones myself. I just think the blue variety is so aggressively blah.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure you're not gay?! ;-) Most guys would wear black ones, and maybe pimps wear white, but the rest...? I don't know!
Gays, girls, or rock stars can wear bright pants. Or men with a lot of panache.
ReplyDeleteWe wore pastels in the 80's, greys and yellows, colours which were mere weeks previous taboo.
ReplyDeletePanache is a fancy way of saying Metro, which I believe is possibly more EO's leaning.
I wear blue jeans, and have worn black, but come on, driving in black jeans here is just too tiring, pale blue are definitely cooler.
On a motorcycle?
ReplyDeleteMetrosexual, haha. What a cute term. But I have to admit that if I hadn't been a mystic, I surely would be such a one.
Nah, no tinted windows, and the sun reaches higher in the sky this far South. There must be 15-20degrees lattitude difference, you're about 53N (53.58N, 2.42W), and I'm about 35N (37.76N, 122.25W).
ReplyDeleteThis lets more light on the lap of the driver, less atmosphere to get through, less shading from car door etc
Metrosexual, haha. What a cute term. But I have to admit that if I hadn't been a mystic, I surely would be such a one.
ReplyDeleteIf you wanted to be a "metrosexual" you'd have to move!
Notlob is in a metropolis.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing, I just Googled Notlob so I could give a link, and one hit was this one, which is indeed correct BUT "Notlob" does not appear on this page anymore!
A better Google hit for Notlob is this one. Notlob has (had) and awesome swimming pool/leisure center with spa baths, water chutes etc, all full of Lancashire Lasses.
Yeah, that closed a year after I moved here, just my luck.
ReplyDeleteThough I think I heard rumors of a new one coming.
I'll go there with a telezoom, and then find out what prison is like.
You can always go to Wigan Pier for a dip, famed destination on wakes week ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat leisure center seemed more 80's than 70's. I was in Bolton in 92-94. You guys had your first LazerQuest arena then. My dysfunctional social group was spread over six shires, and three of the possie were Boltonites, we spread down to Whaley Bridge just S of M'cr, and west to Mold in N Wales.
If you ended up doing porridge, would it be a Strangeways? Since you wouldn't be using that telezoom from inside...
Never done porridge, never hope to, but these days you can hardly carry a camera without instant stigma.
ReplyDeleteYour last sentence I don't get.
If you ended up doing porridge, would it be a Strangeways? Since you wouldn't be using that telezoom from inside...
ReplyDeleteThat is English Manners. Delicate matters are never expressed in complete sentences unless by a doctor or Matron. I need to see Priest again.
First sentence you got, but will our colonial cousins in the US and Canada? So I rephrase it as...
If you ended up serving time in prison, would it be at HMP Strangeways, the correction facility in N Manchester?
I assume one is not permitted a camera inside prison. That being said old bean, I could look after it for you, I may use it once or twice myself.
You can tell my mind isn't on work at the moment.
I figured out the porridge part (typical English), and I looked up Strangeways (what a solid building!), but the ending there was definitely a bit too abbreviated, ole chum.
ReplyDeleteWell, who knows, maybe I could document the entire experience and make a bundle. They seem to allow people to do a lot of stuff these days. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's 16 km from Manchester, a city of a mere 139,403. I'd say you'd have to move to London to be a true metrosexual.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like I meant Manchester's population was that size. I know it's much, much greater than that.
ReplyDeleteHey, enough Manc bashing. To illustrate the import of this major sea port I made a quick quiz
ReplyDeleteManchester TV/Film Quiz
I couldn't live in the Smoke, I suspect.
ReplyDeleteA local history buff told me that before the industrial revolution, Manchester was a major world city.
I believe Manchester is almost 2000 yrs old, as a settlement. Indeed wikipedia states it was founded in the first century.
ReplyDeleteWe've had this discussion before, towns ending in
"caster"
"cester"
"chester"
etc
were Roman fortifications. e.g. Worcester, Chester, Leicester, Lancaster.