I'm not sure just what constitutes the "old days" but as far as the way people dressed is concerned it was more down to their age than the times.
People born around 1920 (as my parents were) would have been in early middle age by the time the swinging sixties hit us and they were already too old to join in with the hippy movement.
They dressed in a certain way. For many men that meant always wearing a shirt and tie, even if they were spending the evening watching television or reading the newspaper. The same applied to Sundays which were special days where the phrase "a day of rest" really meant just that. But men would still wear a collar and tie. Standards were never allowed to slip. Often the collar and tie would be put on after an afternoon bath.
I remember the days when if you worked in London (and particularly in Whitehall) you wore a bowler hat, carried a briefcase and rolled up umbrella and often had a newspaper under your arm. It was almost as if these were rules that had to be obeyed. Shoes were black and highly polished. On last week's visit to London I actually saw a shoe shine stall in one of the arcades. It was £8 a shine. In the 1960s shoe shiners seemed to be everywhere.
Management wouldn't be seen dead without a whistle and flute (suit) and you could almost tell a person's status from the way they dressed. Do you remember that sketch featuring John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett that appeared on The Frost Report? They were lined up according to size. Cleese is well over six foot, Barker was about average size and Corbett was short. Cleese was dressed as a toff and told us that he was upper class and looked down on Barker. Barker was a smartly dressed businessman who told us that he was middle class and looked up to Cleese but down on Corbett who was working class. Corbett just said "I know my place."
Those sketches said a lot about the 1960s. But the other side of the 60s coin saw the breakout of hippiedom, the summer of love, the blossoming of free speech and much more. But this blog isn't about that (a future one will be). This is about perception of dress.
The Royal Norwich Golf Club used to be ultra posh. It no longer technically exists as the course was sold for building land and the club merged with another a short distance away. Royal Norwich as its title suggests was posh. You couldn't just turn up and play. You had to be a member or invited to play by a member. Membership was closed and only re-opened when somebody died and even then there was a waiting list. In other words it was like so many other golf courses - just for the rich or the elite.
A few years ago before it closed there was a sign outside the club along the lines of "All welcome. Rounds available from £20." Golf is a game that was once elitist but is now available to everyone, but I still have this feeling that I don't and shouldn't be part of that because I'm not upper class. I still imagine that to be part of a golf social set-up you still have to wear a collar and tie which is a nonsense. At quiz evenings at our local golf club nobody wears a collar or tie. On holiday we ate at a golf club where most people were wearing jeans.
But for people of a certain age like me we still go back years when it comes to dress. Will these shoes be appropriate for this venue when the reality is nobody cares anymore? On another break we went for afternoon tea (that used to be posh by the way but is now common place) in a very historic hotel. The guy next to us looked scruffy to say the least. But nobody turned a hair. Forty years ago he wouldn't have been allowed in. I was once refused entry to a New York restaurant because I wasn't wearing a jacket and tie. We booked for a later time, returned to our hotel, I put on the required jacket and tie and we ate there. Obviously putting on that jacket and tie made me a much better and more acceptable person. I think today I would just tell them where to go and take my custom elsewhere.
It's good that today we are not defined by the clothes that we wear although I still try to dress accordingly to my surroundings and situation (although I know that there's one person reading this blog who will probably disagree and I suspect they know who they are). That meant recently I tried to walk over two miles with very uncomfortable shoes just because I felt it was what was appropriate. The result was I ended up having to limp home and my big toe went black and eventually I lost the nail.
I am still concerned sometimes about whether I am dressed appropriately for a situation, although usually I'm too lazy to make an effort. When I worked I mainly wore a suit. When I retired I no longer had to wear a suit and now rarely do. At weddings and funerals we see less and less suits and professional men now tend to wear jacket and trousers without ties - which makes my collection of 70 or 80 ties redundant and makes me wonder why I collected them in the first place.
We have been to a number of funerals with instructions "please wear bright colours." That makes things so much more comfortable.
The whole dress thing has been brought home by what's going on in Ukraine at the moment. This was commented on by a journalist presenter recently. He pointed out that the world's most hated man Putin is always dressed impeccably in very expensive suit and tie but is totally aloof. Dressing well doesn't stop him being an insane psychopath. The world's most loved man President Zelinsky dresses down and wears a T shirt and casual slacks. That doesn't stop him being a world hero.
Talking of the war in Ukraine. There was a horrible suggestion yesterday that the war could go on for years. Personally I doubt this will be the case. We live in a world where things happen very quickly. What used to take years to resolve can now be resolved in a matter of hours thanks to technology. So let's hope that this war has a shelf life before Ukraine is destroyed entirely.
There's one aspect of the BBC's coverage of the war that I don't like. The coverage has overall been good but every day they roll out this guy who has a map of Ukraine that has areas under control of Russia coloured red. He makes everything sound as if it's coverage of a general election. "The areas covered in red are seats that have fallen to Labour." Enough for today.