COLLOQUY

1. During the 60s, the sartorial rebellion against America's button-down conservatism was a viable & necessary one, although unfortunately we were too irony-challenged to notice the contradiction in using (new) fashion to protest (old) fashion. Nonetheless, I think it represented a healthy democratic impulse.
2. Inevitably, this rebellion -- with all of its contradictions -- was quickly gobbled up, stripped of any nascent social legitimacy, and sold back to us as -- what else? -- fashion. Today it can cost more to look like a street person (or an ex-con) than to look like a banker.
3. The self-conscious grunginess that infects today's fashion world carries a not-so-subliminal ideological message: "Take nothing seriously." It's postmodernism run amok: nothing has meaning, nothing is special, nothing is really worth adorning yourself for. As one who still passionately believes in working for substantial (and "radical") social change, and who also understands that working for such change takes dedication, hard work, and discipline (along with joy and affirmation of life), I find this message insidious and corrupting.
4. When living in Chicago, I frequented many of the city's south-side blues clubs. At the beginning, I'd be dressed like the Vista Volunteer I was: unpressed jeans and flannel shirt, old tennis shoes. Then one evening, a dapper-looking gent approached me, his eyes sparkling w/ a Zen-like combination of aggressiveness and good humor: "Man," he told me, "You must have a lot of money to look as bad as you do!" The very next day I purchased a pair of new slacks, a couple of shirts, and a pair of shoes that would hold a polish.
5. Today, I teach wearing a tie & jacket.

-- D.G. Whiteis, Indiana-Purdue University at Ft. Wayne (posted 4/15, 1:19 p.m., E.D.T.)

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