My wife and I like to have dinner in a nice restaurant. The same problem. Jeans and sneakers. Nor does it seem to matter what the occasion is.

Dressing for the occasion is passe. More and more people just seem to fall out of bed and go to the opera
or to a fine restaurant in whatever suits (no pun intended) them.

Perhaps one of the culprits is “dress down day” at the office. But being casual is at a price. The growing informality in how people dress and look takes its toll on elegance.

The opera house used to be a place for elegance. People dressed up in their finest. And this was true for
Broadway as well. Now it is unusual to see men in a tie and suit at the opera or ladies in dresses let alone
gowns. There are, of course, those that do but they are becoming a rarity.

This decline in civility is at bottom the idea that we can do what we want, that there are no standards but our own, that neither the occasion nor the situation has any bearing on what we do or should do. Of
course, a man has a right to wear a pair of jeans to the opera. As does a woman. They have the right
to wear sneakers as well. A man has a right to wear a pair of shorts to the opera.

Rights come with responsibilities. We cannot just do what we want all the time in every situation.
One of those times and one of those situations is the opera, is the theater, is a wedding. But my wife and I actually saw a woman in shorts at a wedding! We have the responsibility to be well dressed not only
because this makes us feel good but out of respect for the people around us, for the performers on stage,
for the very institution itself.

We have a responsibility to know that an opera house or or Broadway theater or a fine restaurant is not a ball park. That these are special spaces demanding special care in how we dress and do not dress.

Opera remains the glorious art form it is and no amount of poor dressing by the audience will change that. But what has changed is going to the opera as an elegant event. The Broadway musical too is a glorious
art form but it too is no longer an elegant event. The villain is care no longer being taken in being well
dressed for the occasion.

But who decides what is elegant? Or what it means to be well dressed? Is it our own individual decision?
Or is there tradition? Some traditions if not most traditions are relevant and of value for they help to bind us together as a society and as a culture and even as a nation.

Ours has become the age of informality where nearly anything goes in the way of clothing.

One can only hope that Brooks Brothers among other clothiers in the high standards it sets will in time
convince the general population that “to dress for the occasion” means just that, to put on one’s finest
for the opera, for the theater, for a wedding, for the office.

Jeans and sneakers and shorts have their place but not in the opera house, not in the theater, not in a fine restaurant.

Cruise ships have “formal nights” but so many passengers do not wear formal clothing. Here too we should dress for the occasion.

At some level this decline in good dress does affect one’s enjoyment of the opera performance, of the theater performance, of the restaurant, of the cruise. Expectations of elegance not met. Being all dressed up when others are in jeans and sneakers makes for ill ease.

Here is a call, a plea that people dress up and not dress down for the occasion. That when they go to the opera or when they go to the theater or when they go to a fine restaurant or when they go to a wedding
they will have taken off the jeans and the sneakers and the shorts and the wrinkled shirt which is never
tucked in and put on a suit and tie or a sports jacket and tie for the men and a dress or skirt and blouse for the women.

You know what would happen? We would all feel better about ourselves and about each other! And an important step toward harmony and peace will have been made!

Stephen Schoeman, Ph. D.
Political Scientist