![\"xmas.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/xmas.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>\nThe Times looks at the return of fashion<\/a>, at least when it comes to men, and credits (or blames) “Mad Men”: <\/p>\n
\nIn the show, the older men — Don Draper and his boss, Roger Sterling — are the best-dressed characters, while the new-kid, cool-cat copywriters are so loath to play the game that they won’t even wear a tie. Soon enough, the hippie movement would deride the necktie as a “dog collar” and any corporate-minded spoilsport as a “suit.” In the decades that followed, a minor genre of films addressed the Unsuiting of Mr. X, from “Barefoot in the Park” (1967) and “Easy Rider” (1969) to “After Hours” (1985) and “Something Wild” (1986).<\/p>\n
Now the tie is on the other neck. Today the well-off 55-year-old is likely to be the worst-dressed man in the room, wearing a saggy T-shirt and jeans. The cash-poor 25-year-old is in a natty sport coat and skinny tie bought at Topman for a song. Young men are embracing the “Mad Men” elements of style in a way that the older men never did, still don’t and just won’t. The result is a kind of rift emerging between the generation of men in their 20s and 30s and those in their late 40s and 50s for whom a suit was not merely square but cubed, and caring about how one looked was effeminate.<\/p>\n
(snip)<\/p>\n
In a twist, neckties are being sold at the very place that did more than any other to usher in casual Friday: Gap. Not to be outdone, American Apparel now sells bow ties.<\/p>\n
“The older generation, say 45-plus, look upon success as being able to dress down,” said Marshal Cohen, the chief analyst at NPD Group, which tracks retail sales. “They think being able to wear jeans is the epitome of achievement.<\/p>\n
“But the younger generation is looking at getting dressed up and making their mark,” Mr. Cohen continued. “It’s a real generation gap here. I teach at three different colleges, and I am amazed how dressed up some of the students are. Girls still come in their hoodies and pajamas, but boys come in their suits.”<\/p>\n
NPD figures for the year ending Nov. 1 indicate that sales of tailored clothing among men ages 35 to 54 were down 17 percent. Among men ages 25 to 34, sales were up almost 4 percent.<\/p>\n
“It’s these young guys rebelling against their boomer dads,” said Russell Smith, 45, the author of “Men’s Style: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Dress” and an advice columnist for The Globe and Mail in Toronto. “But it’s very amusing and paradoxical that the new anti-parental paradigm involves a pinstripe suit and a pocket square.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, maybe all this is a good thing. Maybe it will usher in a new era of civility. <\/p>\n
But does it have to include those pants? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Because clearly I will be a danger to society. I’m talking about this outfit, from the New York Times today: The Times looks at the return of fashion, at least when it comes to men, and credits (or blames) “Mad Men”: In the show, the older men — Don Draper and his boss, Roger Sterling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-that"],"yoast_head":"\n
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