Sons of well dressed fathers?

[A.L.Z.]

This is a very interesting thread. I confess--I think (just saying, not disparaging) that most folks here come from very modest backgrounds, and therefore, their fathers did not splurge on clothes like they do. Their love for clothes is entirely their own, in my opinion. I am in my late 20s, and I am the kid of very poor immigrants. I think for most of his life, my dad had only 1 proper suit, and 1 sportscoat. I remember being fascinated with them as a kid, and even as a 7 year-old kid, my Dad let me parade around in them...I was fascinated by clothes even back then. My dad was a baker who baked through the night so that restaurants could get their morning bread which we could selfishly enjoy the next day--he didn't need a suit. My Mom always dressed well though, even though we were poor. She taught me to buy the best, the finest we could afford, and then use it, albeit with respect. Care was essential, hoarding and safeguarding were marsupialed when it came to clothes--that's what I am still being taught. But it was different for me and my brother--my physique was unflattering and very few things looked good. My brother was tall and handsome, and everythign looked good on him. It's true that most folks here are fantastically well-dressed....for those of you with sons--do you share your sartorial savviness? PS....I was lucky to go to a good college, and that meant I was exposed to people of much higher social backgrounds, including people much wealthier and more influential than I could ever dream of being. In particular, if you have the looks and can walk the walk and talk the talk....you can date some of these people. I once dated a girl who, when she found out my dad "worked in a bakery" (and she knew which city I was from), assumed my Dad was an executive at a very famous baking corporation in the city: "Hey, my uncle also works at XXXXXXX. Did you Dad know him?" That was a fine moment for me....I had arrived

I didn't have the guts to tell her my dad baked in front of the ovens....

PPS My Mom had a pair of pants which belonged to my granddad (From the 30s)....she said they were quality and handsome....she gave them to my brother, not me!!!

 

[Bartlebooth]

The last compliment I received on my clothing was followed by, "You're like your dad. He always dresses sharp, too." Given, it was from a woman wearing a Christmas outfit to a birthday party in January, who wouldn't know style or elegance if it politely tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to please pass the butter. My dad's sense of style is in the Dillards and Jos. A. Banks range; Brooks Brothers is about as nice as it gets, in his wardrobe, so nothing too stylish; but he does care about the way he looks. As far as I know, he still gets a manicure regularly. That sense of awareness, if nothing else, has been a huge influence. I can't leave the house knowing I look less than put together, and it is undoubtedly where my interest in clothing originates, even if our tastes are rather different. My mother's father was fairly fashionable, and even though we were never close, he was certainly an influence. He wore three-piece suits and such, and I have a few ties of his in my closet.

 

[ALFAMALE]

I think my interest in clothes some how came from how cheap and poorly my father dresses.

 

[Simplicio]

I think I realized at some point that my entire family was a poor influence as regards clothing. The men particularly. It isn't just that no one happens to dress well. They actually prefer clothes that are cheap and without distinction. Maybe there is some kind of idea that it is better not to be noticed at all. I'd like to say that I've escaped this, but the reality is that I am still working on it, and it isn't all that easy. I've made some progress, however, and I've recently started encouraging my younger brother to make more of an effort. But this is not an easy project.

If I ever have a son I will not only teach him about clothing, I will set strict rules on what he is allowed to wear while living in my house. I think we'll skip the cargo shorts.

 

[olualbert]

My father was an impeccable dresser.....he inculcated in me that appearance does matter..people will judge you based on how you are dressed. Robert Greene states in 48 laws of power, "Be Royal in your own fashion: Act like a King to be treated like one." Appearing too common and informal at all times make people disrespect you. Baltasar Gracian states, "Be sublime in your deeds, lofty in your thoughts; and in all your doings show that you deserve to be a king even though you are not one in reality."

 

[Kent Wang]

My parents grew up in the austere times of the Cultural Revolution in China, so they know very little about clothing. I did see an old photo of my father on a business trip to Mexico wearing a 3" tie and aviators and was quite surprised at how good he looked.

Originally Posted by JLibourel

My father was killed before I was born, courtesy of WWII. He was certainly an exceptionally good-looking man, much better than I ever was. A lot of the photos I have of him show him in Dutch naval uniform. I still have his sword, epaulets and bicorne hat, which my mother was able to take with her when she caught the last American plane out of eastern Java a couple of days before the Japanese invaded the island. (She was about to give birth to me at the time. Fortunately, I delayed making my appearance in the world until she was safely in Australia.)
You have such fantastic stories. BTW, how do you pronounce your first name? Rhymes with Dan?

Originally Posted by Simplicio

If I ever have a son I will not only teach him about clothing, I will set strict rules on what he is allowed to wear while living in my house. I think we'll skip the cargo shorts.
That may backfire.

 

[upnorth]

Originally Posted by Simplicio

If I ever have a son I will not only teach him about clothing, I will set strict rules on what he is allowed to wear while living in my house. I think we'll skip the cargo shorts.

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

That may backfire.

+1. By 12, he will bring your clothes to goodwill when you are away. At 13, he will throw your shoes in the fireplace and when he is 14, he will leave you and move to a nudist colony just to spite you.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I definitely have my father's insouciance, but none of his clothing style. I think I have seen my father wear a tie three times in my life.

 

[Wideknot]

While my father was always immaculately dressed, I didn't learn from him, I learned from the same source he did -- my mother. Her father was a haberdasher who was very particular in his appearance. Until the day he died (he was 94) I never saw my grandfather without a tie -- even if he was tilling his garden, working in his woodshop, or changing the oil in his car. That sense of dress was inculcated into mom and she made sure it made its way into my dad and myself.

While he was working, my dad was always dressed in an impeccably fitted MTM suit or SC and trousers--all of which I know my mom picked out. This in a profession (aerospace engineering) where the order of the day was literally short-sleeve shirts, tie, and pocket protector. I have group photos of my dad and his co-workers posing before missiles where he is the only one wearing a jacket in the Florida sun.

In his eighties, he's slipped into khakis and sport shirts as his every day attire but, last week at my youngest daughter's college graduation, he surprised me. He'd bought a very well-cut new suit, one of his beloved Hickey Freeman's I'd guess, that was a deep blue. With a gray Grenadine and black cap toes, plus the fact that he's still quite slim and has an erect posture, he looked like a movie star. Amazing man. Thanks mom.

 

[Working Stiff]

Originally Posted by seanpatrickb

I think we will all agree that sf is a large collection of extraordinarily well dressed men, and was curious how many people caught this fever from their fathers.

I don't agree with the first part of this sentence. But yes, my father is a well dressed man.

 

[Tibor]

Originally Posted by pocketsquareguy

My fathers style would be similar in look and fit to Rodney Dangerfield. But, everyone liked him for being genuine.

+1 This is great! LOL

 

[GBear]

My father used to be well dressed way back when he grew up in Hong Kong. Everything he owned were bespoke. Now, he wears baggy dress shirts, oversized wool vests, and the same old ass slacks he had back then (~20-25+ years old). I wonder what happened. Maybe life and family happened.

 

[well-kept]

My late father was a man of innate elegance. He always carried himself well and no matter what he wore he looked like royalty. I am not the only one to have thought so, btw. At his funeral someone mentioned in their eulogy my dad's resemblance to Prince Philip - spot on.

So I was surprised, after his death, to go into his closets, at my mother's request - take anything you want - to find how few items of clothing he actually had. Much of it was decades old. Very little of it would have cost a great deal. A few suits. One pair of black oxfords, three brown, a handful of ties, one from Hermes and rest just average. But what he could do with that! There's a lesson in it somewhere that I haven't learned yet.

 

[Holdfast]

My father has always dressed properly. Not expensively, mind you, but nicely enough with upper-middle market sort of items and generally conservative combinations. Made-to-measure suits, decent mid-market shirts, solid English shoes, decent watches and pens without being top-tier, that sort of thing. He has a slight occasional fondness for flashy ties, esp. in the second half of his career, but otherwise his style is pretty middle-of-the-road (or what used to be middle-of-the-road for his generation). In retirement, he's moved more towards a country-ish sort of look, although if he's not doing anything important, he's more casually dressed. I wouldn't say he has a dazzingly good colour sense, or a perfect appreciation of what good fit is. He's of the generation that simply trusted their tailor and men's outfitter to select items that would go well together, and that gave him enough experience to experiment a bit later on. By SF standards, he occasionally makes dressing faux-pas, but by the general professional world's standard, he knows what he's doing. Funnily enough, I didn't realise just how much he liked nice clothes until after I - independently - became interested in them. For instance, I never really noticed the eg Churches and Barkers he wore regularly while I was growing up, but then spotted them once I learned more about them myself. So, by setting a good example, but without overtly teaching me, he showed me what decent dress is. When I became interested in it for myself, I realised he knew more than he would ever have volunteered for himself, and it has become another topic for us to talk about, and one that I never would have expected we would be discussing.

 

[niidawg3]

i credit my desire for dressing partly to my dad (about 40%) and the rest to the streets of Adabraka where i grew up. It was basically a sartorial war zone between 3 men who owned "boutiques" on my street.

it was damn near a daily ritual to come out and walk down the street peering into each shop to catch a glimpse of what each man was wearing.