The perennial question of aesthetic decadence

[uppercase]

Why didn't you tell me before??!

How timely!

I need an implant by a well dressed aesthete interested in decadence.

I will send you my personal email to connect us....

[davidhuh]

We have quite a few Dentists on the LL.

Aren't they out shooting lions?

[uppercase]

Poor Cecil!
Seriously.

I hate that story and the killing of a beautiful animal...with a crossbow!
I hear he stayed alive 40 hours before dying.

I have no room for "trophy" hunting.
Hunting, yes.
Culling overpopulated animal population. Yes.

But deliberately killing only the strongest animal, seeking only the animal with the most points, the largest mane, etc. is terrible. Absolutely terrible.

But let's not talk about other forms of violence to both animals and humans today....

[C.Lee]

...Almost everybody cares how his or her clothes look.
Every player in the garment industry has some sort of design and marketing organization behind. The premise is that people care about looks...

To Luca's question and hectorm's assertion above, the culture of dress men once widely enjoyed has morphed into a culture of consumption. Yes, people care about how their clothes look, and they are very good at procuring those items which are current, in-season, popular, on-trend, and must-have. Those clothes - new off the rack, fresh off the runway, endorsed by so-and-so - sure do look good. And since they look good in the ads, features, and stories, they will look good on me.

Sadly, what is missing is an awareness of how one looks in their clothes. The language of balance, proportion and taste has all but disappeared. The focus has shifted from cultivating a personal style, and the tools to do so, to procuring style: make making way for buy.

And to UC's comment, this culture of consumption saddens me, as in addition to hurting my eyes, it leads to a material violence against our natural environment and the creatures, both human and animal, which call it home.

Regards.

[hectorm]

To Luca's question and hectorm's assertion above,.... what is missing is an awareness of how one looks in their clothes. The language of balance, proportion and taste has all but disappeared.

I cannot say whether awareness of how one looks has waned during our generation. I suspect its level is the same as it was 50 or 80 years ago. But I´m inclined to think that at the same level of awareness or ignorance, the contemporary role models (some kind of shortcut to style, balance, proportion, etc.) have deteriorated bigtime. My father´s reference were Marcelo Mastroianni and Jack Kennedy, my uncle´s Rossanno Brazzi and Gregory Peck. Today´s popular role models are (fill the blank and go figure).

[culverwood]

Perhaps our fathers and grandfathers wanted to look like their "elders and betters". I get the feeling that the baby boomer generation and our children do not feel the need to do so and are happy making their own style.

I find this most acute in black tie where many style arbiters on forums like this wail and moan if anybody suggests a change to a pre-war template. As a child of the 60's and 70's I have never agreed that there is only one way to wear black tie.

[couch]

The Washington Post takes on the "dress for fine dining" question very gingerly. (At least they printed it.)