Formal dress
(Triggered by this post.)
I don't have the power to write a comprehensive text, but here are some points:
I've been wearing a tie and, at least on the street, a jacket for ages. I feel comfortable in this, I mean on the plain material level, not the spiritual.
Reactions were always diverse. A neighbour about my age, typical soft-mannered carrot-eating teacher in a baggy thick pullover of undeterminable greyish colour friendly encouraged me "Hey, you don't have to dress so formally!" I found that really funny, but objectively, it was actually quite an insult. I wondered how he'd have reacted if I'd told him "Hey, you don't have to walk around like a dosser!" or "No need to wear your non-conformist uniform in private."
People, especially in Summer and/or in Israel, of course, urge me to take off the jacket. If I think they tell me for my own sake, I don't, if in order for non-jacket wearers to feel more easy, I do, as a rule.
My wife, a major take-off-this-jacket-in-this-heat-already advocate, thinks it's good I fully dress right in the morning, because it prevents me from letting myself go. She worked in a hospital once (as an intern), and says much of the drabness and misery would go away there if patients would dress normally, which most don't.
I do this, especially in shul, because I deem it the most appropriate dress for me, but I don't transfer this to others. In fact, I like the diversity in my shul, and I'm sad when I see only the oldest generation wear non-black suits in the (my?) other shul.
Not wearing a jacket is certainly better than letting it hang down because your shel yad doesn't fit comfortably (or you don't care).
Conspicuousness is an issue, so I don't wear top hats, for instance. Well, I did wear one (rented, because my father's chapeau-clac was too creasy) for my chasuno, and I have a smaller, less formal one which I wear really seldom. I wear a grey homburg sometimes, mainly on Yontev, if the weather allows it, and I think this doesn't cross he line yet.
A commenter to the post before this one has a longer piece about rabbi Fink of Brovender's explaining Hasidic dress. For the accuracy of facts, ask your local historian.
I don't have the power to write a comprehensive text, but here are some points:
I've been wearing a tie and, at least on the street, a jacket for ages. I feel comfortable in this, I mean on the plain material level, not the spiritual.
Reactions were always diverse. A neighbour about my age, typical soft-mannered carrot-eating teacher in a baggy thick pullover of undeterminable greyish colour friendly encouraged me "Hey, you don't have to dress so formally!" I found that really funny, but objectively, it was actually quite an insult. I wondered how he'd have reacted if I'd told him "Hey, you don't have to walk around like a dosser!" or "No need to wear your non-conformist uniform in private."
People, especially in Summer and/or in Israel, of course, urge me to take off the jacket. If I think they tell me for my own sake, I don't, if in order for non-jacket wearers to feel more easy, I do, as a rule.
My wife, a major take-off-this-jacket-in-this-heat-already advocate, thinks it's good I fully dress right in the morning, because it prevents me from letting myself go. She worked in a hospital once (as an intern), and says much of the drabness and misery would go away there if patients would dress normally, which most don't.
I do this, especially in shul, because I deem it the most appropriate dress for me, but I don't transfer this to others. In fact, I like the diversity in my shul, and I'm sad when I see only the oldest generation wear non-black suits in the (my?) other shul.
Not wearing a jacket is certainly better than letting it hang down because your shel yad doesn't fit comfortably (or you don't care).
Conspicuousness is an issue, so I don't wear top hats, for instance. Well, I did wear one (rented, because my father's chapeau-clac was too creasy) for my chasuno, and I have a smaller, less formal one which I wear really seldom. I wear a grey homburg sometimes, mainly on Yontev, if the weather allows it, and I think this doesn't cross he line yet.
A commenter to the post before this one has a longer piece about rabbi Fink of Brovender's explaining Hasidic dress. For the accuracy of facts, ask your local historian.
posted by Phillip Minden at 11/02/2005 05:59:00 a.m.
4 Comments:
So this is how you dress normally, all day, wherever whenever? (When you started, was there) any specific religio-/cultural reason behind it, or just your personal sense of fashion? Is it primarily for shul, and then just by extension the rest of the day, as Habib commented on my post? Or the expected clothing style of your job?
I definitely agree with you about the strange contortions people go through when their yad tefillin doesn't fit under their jacket. If they're actually worried about the formality ideal, it doesn't make much sense.
Btw, are you European? I've heard that European clothing culture (at least in some places?) is more formal than its American counterpart.
So this is how you dress normally, all day, wherever whenever?
Mostly.
(When you started, was there) any specific religio-/cultural reason behind it, or just your personal sense of fashion?
A mix of the two, with the former setting a certain lower limit. But I don't want to generalise this, neither do I think I'm more correct in this. This would even rather induce me to forgo wearing a formal suit in order not to contribute to the chumro inflation. I confess I simply feel comfortable in a suit. I like three-piece suits, shirts with open cuffs instead of buttoned ones. (They're hard to get, particularly without doubled cuffs, most of them are for dinner suits - I take it you have the complementary problem of finding shirts with concealed buttons, but normal cuffs.) I prefer low-key cufflinks, though, so the difference isn't really visible. but as a student, there were times when I was cynically hanging around in cafés wearing existentialist turtlenecks under my jacket. :-)
European clothing culture (at least in some places?) is more formal
I think this is a matter of the past, like the near-religious opposition to formal clothing in the Israeli business world. I think I even remember seeing a European guy wearing a brown suit after 5 p.m.! Brown!! After five!!!
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