And of course there is the risk of someone taking the “karaoke mike” from the top.
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Designer, Richard Shahinian spent many hours pretending to explain away his speaker designs as attempts to replicate real sound waveforms etc.. Yada yada. It was obviously all a result of a bad drinks party experience..
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Other than if actually in a race, do you not take basic tools with you?
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Nothing wrong with a wristwatch with a DJ/tux - provided it is a slim elegant one (think Ebel rather than Rolex).
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A belt holder for a mobile phone is the only way I can be sure I will feel the vibration when it ‘rings’ (I always have it on silent - and wish everyone else had theirs likewise).
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Ah, one we agree on!
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You shouldn’t button a suit any time, except possibly when outdoors and very windy, with hands otherwise occupied
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You forgot, it should be buttoned briefly when speaking formally at an event or in court. Addressing superiors or speaking publicly in a formal setting is disrespectful with the jacket unbuttoned.
Interesting- that may be the case in Japan, but not Britain, at least not in the circles in which I’ve moved. (A double-breasted suit is different, but they are ghastly anyway!)
Actually I was talking about Britain. You have to wear a suit to have suit etiquette and what 99% of what Japanese wear is scarecely worthy of the name.
You sure you just haven’t been faux pas all these years?
This is the only post on all of this forum that has actually made my skin crawl. Even if it were tongue-in-cheek. Button a suit when addressing superiors? Those people some of us may think are superior are just another bloke or woman doing another job. No better and no worse than anyone else. Superior my backside. And don’t get me started on that slave shackle some people voluntarily put round their necks, commonly known as a tie.
However, I respect other people’s rights to dress and behave in this way if it pleases them, but it still makes my skin crawl.
Right, I think I need my first coffee of the day, and to get off my soapbox.
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Social hierarchy and expected etiquette varies considerably across cultures.
We are a global forum and I find it interesting to hear about these differing ‘expectations’.
G
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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not given over to such thinking either. In fact, I view wearing a suit at all as a nod to the man. In my early 20s I went all in with bespoke tailoring, assortments of mens apparel like drawers of just cufflinks and so on. Along with it, understanding form and custom as I believed these things made the man. I had a particularly disillusioned timed working in finance tech and in my mid 30s hung it all up for jeans and sneakers and a plaid shirt.
Failing to properly “recognise” superiors was a common mark against me in my career so I went for some company that cares only about my technical skill. Today, the only suits I own are for attending weddings and funerals. I won’t even indulge someone who wants to dine out at a formal attire only restaurant. My money is as good as someone elses. They can take me as I am or not at all.
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Was going to say the same as Graeme H , the Japanese are a wonderfully formal people in many ways.
I went to a reception in Park Lane for the head of a major Japanese company many years ago. We were greeted and announced by a professional toast master . It was a very posh do, then something was apparent - and that was that our Japanese hosts were strictly on soft drinks.
So a discrete question was asked “Why are you on mineral water?” the answer came “Because when guests leave, we clear the place, re-stock the food and have party for ourselves” My colleague and I made a point of leaving (and being seen to leave early)
Dealing with Japanese companies is a minefield of politeness and little rituals
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Years ago, when I was a marine biologist and becoming a computer programmer, I went to my interviews dressed casually - no suit (this was in about 1980). Everyone else was in suits. One company questioned me on why I was not wearing a suit, and my reply was that I did not intend to wear a suit when working, so doing so for the interview would be a pretense. They seemed quite impressed by that argument. I got the job, and of course never wore a suit to work - and nor did anyone else.
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@GraemeH, @Ian2001, all good points. My mini rant was specifically about the suit and tie phenomenon, and about alleged superiority of others. I applaud respect wherever and however it is displayed, I just don’t think we need to wear any specific clothes to behave respectfully, or regard other people as superior/inferior.
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One thing that I find amusing under present conditions is how colleagues are presenting themselves online for different kinds of meetings.
Sometimes the full ‘at home’ look. Other-times, whilst still clearly ‘at home’, in jacket and tie.
G
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It must be my feminine side, but since retirement I actually miss ‘dressing up’ in a suit. Walking the dogs doesn’t seem to count as a reasonable excuse to slip on the Armani.
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I think that its perhaps time for this one to move to the Padded Cell…
My younger son had a Freddo addiction and for years we used a Freddo Index (he loves maths) and he would say how many Freddos could be bought instead of X. But as you say, the price rocketed over the years.
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Well, I’ve (sadly) been a daily suit-wearer for work for the past nearly 29 years (after 20 years over 4 jobs only wearing a suit for interviews). In that time, from meetings with clients to meetings with more senior management to addressing committees of politicians to speaking at scientific conferences to appearing as an expert witness in court I, have never buttoned my suit. Obviously I don’t know what others think of that fact, so it is always possible I have simply been oblivious of being faux pas, but I would say that apart from courts the number of people with buttoned suits was in a minority, and indeed increasingly over that an increasing number of people have eschewed wearing suits.
Courts are different because of the formal attire worn by court officials, however I have seen expert witnesses less formally dressed than I, while if anyone has thought my dress disrespectful they were too polite to say, but it certainly didn’t adversely affect how my evidence was received.
Interesting - it must be the different field of work. And one thing thing I have not done since leaving school is calling anyone ‘Sir’, except when in a formal situation addressing someone who has been knighted, though I do address government ministers as ‘Minister’, and judges or magistrates in court by whatever title I the lawyers use.
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What you have to do is ask something that requires them to stand up, maybe to reach for something or go and get something, when you might discover whether their formal dress extends below the waste!
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I have regular Zoom meetings with my bird watching gang, I find it amusing to see some of the backgrounds, most just ordinary rooms ranging from shambles to pristine & dare I say some do have a hint of being staged.
Extra to that is the kids wandering through, dogs doing doggy things, wife/hubby getting into the view & saying ‘oops oh sorry’, the background ‘noises off’ of phone calls, telling the kids to be quiet & behave.
And just to keep this on an audio thread, my Nait-2 on the dining room sideboard has attracted some admirers.
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