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Monday, September 8. 2014

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Your Back to College Wardrobe

Interestingly to me, it's similar to how I dress today, and I was not even alive in 1948.

In 1948, college students believed that they were adults. Many had already been to war and were glad to get into sharp civvies and maybe meet a horny gal at a college tea.

What's the matter with the kids today?!?

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:46 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

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I hope everyone wore their bow ties on National Bow Tie day on August 28.

#1 Jim on 2014-09-08 13:51 (Reply)

That photo was from a time when college was being transformed from a place where the rich went to learn about the world and to become worldly to a place the middle and upper classes went to learn advanced concepts to drive industry and the economy (e.g. get a good job), and before it became a fundamental right of all children as a place to hide out for four to eight more years while getting your sex & drugs on while putting in time for a worthless degree.

I prefer to dress like that, but it seems to intimidate the hoi polloi, and since I have to work with them, and my out of work pursuits have turned to hiking in the mountains, IDPA, and working out in the gym my poor suits languish in the closet.

#2 William O. B'Livion on 2014-09-08 14:27 (Reply)

Since the 60's, the uniform has changed. Now it's jeans and tees and sneakers. Apparently, no student wants to be confused with an adult. And it is a very rigidly enforced uniform. No drill sergeant was ever more doctrinaire about the uniforms his troops wore.

Interestingly enough, male faculty emulate their teenage charges and dress down trying to curry favor. But female faculty dress up to distinguish themselves from their teenage students, and possibly their slob colleagues.

The real difference comes when one gets to be a chair, dean or other administrative type. Then it is all business suits, not even sports coats and slacks.

I used to (and sometimes still do) tease my excolleagues that what we were seeing was a master/servant relationship signaled by uniforms.

#3 bob sykes on 2014-09-08 14:33 (Reply)

PS. I forgot to add. The students despise those male faculty who dress in jeans and recognize that the faculty doing this are currying favor.

#4 bob sykes on 2014-09-08 14:35 (Reply)

As an early 60's Freshman we had to dress every night with slacks, coat and tie for dinner. Dates and mixers (what the hell are they?) on weekends required a suit and tie and well polished shoes, wing tips or cordovans with a suit. We also had to get the girls back to their dorms or sorority houses for lock up by ten on weeknights and midnight on weekends. How crazy was that and you were allowed just a little bit of PDA at the door at evenings end. Other affection stuff had to be out of view. The times they have changed.

#5 OldTexan (Link) on 2014-09-08 16:03 (Reply)

In the mid-Seventies, my House still had "guest nights" once a month (roughly), when it was anticipated that college trustees or other VIPs might show up for dinner--I assume this was when the college had trustee meetings. We were still required to wear coat and tie to dinner on guest nights; women were to wear a nice dress. Of course, in the middle of winter in rural New England this could be a challenge--I remember my then girlfriend and other women putting on hiking boots with their nice dresses to get to the dining hall, and then taking them off and putting proper shoes on once you got there. The only other place I can remember any sort of rules were faculty-student mixers, where again coat and tie was expected. But other than that, the rules were all gone.

Subsequently, when I went to law school at Berkeley, it was a different matter even as to minimal standards. I dutifully showed up to the new student reception in a blazer and tie, and found myself woefully overdressed in a crowd of people with tee shirts, cut-off jeans and Birkenstocks or flip-flops. Bit of a culture shock, really.

#5.1 Jim on 2014-09-08 16:43 (Reply)

I went to Trinity in San Antonio in the spring of 1964; what I still remember is the girls being forbidden to wear pants on upper campus (away from the dormitory area,) and how attractive they were, and how nice they smelled. Made a guy want to present himself well - not that I remember much slobbiness in those days anyway. I never minded wearing a starched shirt and clean shoes myself, and I'd already learned how to tie a tie in military school.

Man, San Antonio in the spring; honeysuckle and Shalimar.

Now, women have every right to dress like pigs if they want to. And I have every right to ignore 'em, too. Seems like a shame, though.

#5.2 Rob De Witt on 2014-09-09 01:08 (Reply)

Following the same standards wouldn't those 1948 students look strange to people who had gone to college in 1898?

Colleges are just another business these days and they don't have a dress code. That being the case why would anyone bother to dress up?

#6 FRP on 2014-09-08 16:11 (Reply)

So the clothes make the man eh?

I guess if 0bama was just a snappier dresser all would be well?

#7 feeblemind on 2014-09-08 16:47 (Reply)

I once saw a girl walk into the cafeteria of my alma mater wearing pajamas and fuzzy slippers. I guess she must have felt that she'd perform better if she felt absolutely comfortable, but I think it's hard for people to take you seriously if you dress like it's no big deal. Just my $0.02.

#8 OhBoy on 2014-09-08 17:16 (Reply)

In the mid to late '60s I believe some students on the campuses were scared into maturity by the threat of the draft lurking in the future.

#9 Gary Watts on 2014-09-08 19:01 (Reply)

And yet this is how Anne Cleveland and Jean Anderson depicted Vassar students in the 1930s. Not dressing up to much. Guess it was just the men who were expected to dress up for college.

#10 JKB on 2014-09-09 00:09 (Reply)

The question was "What's the matter with kids today?"
They are victims of the depraved popular culture. Boys, in particular, are carried toward being brain-dead by video game addiction. It will be interesting, the next 20 years -

#11 Claritas on 2014-09-09 11:06 (Reply)

Popular culture is indeed depraved: girls are carried toward being brain-dead by being taught that they are victims, and boys are left with no option but believing they are the cause.

#11.1 Rob De Witt on 2014-09-09 14:20 (Reply)

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Monday, September 8. 2014

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