In his blog 'National Hosiery Obsession' my friend Tom talks of the great dislike of white socks by the other members of his Gym near London and this reminded me of one of the differences I noticed when crossing from the UK to the US – namely office dress code.
Between the UK and the US I did pretty much the same job in pretty much the same environment. The difference was when working in the UK I wore a suit at all times. However, in the US there is a less stringent dress code. It is business casual, basically slacks and a shirt. What difference did it make to my work? None at all! However, it did add another complication in my early residence in this country as I struggled to work out exactly what business casual was (and I am not that convinced I have it even now).
The style of dress not withstanding, the other significant change was that in the UK even people who were disinterested in fashion would update their work suit with high frequency. Double breasted, single breasted, high button, single button, Navy Blue or Olive Green there is a continuous cycle of suit fashion. Here in the US if I had managed to stabilise my waistline, I could still be wearing the same slacks and shirts as five years ago.
So to my terry toweling befuddled friend that explains why there are no white socks in your English gym. They are just very, very, very out of fashion.
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Bazza
I remain skeptical...there are a quite a few people here who
ReplyDeleteA)seem to wear the same suit 3-4 days a week w/ a tie/shirt change to
break it up.
B)seem to be wearing jackets that are possibly out of style (they seem
quite old fashioned in some cases to me, but I may not be knowledgable.)
However, I have only been here about a year, so I will await the
observable wardrobe changes.
I will say that upon my move I did purchase 3 new suits (circa 2007) and
the two times I have been back to the states since, I have updated my
wardrobe. BUT--this is primarily driven by weight-loss, as my clothing
was starting to have a drapery effect. Ha!
Smoochies.
--tomb