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TagsBY PAM LOBLEY
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
NOW THAT'S FUNNY
A few weeks ago I was reading an article about Facebook and the privacy concerns surrounding the website. The article featured a picture of one of the Facebook founders, Mark Zuckerberg, as he addressed a crowd at an important press conference. He was wearing a hoodie.
There has been a casual trend in men's office wear for years now, and all these twenty-something entrepreneurs have just pushed it farther. This counter-intuitive movement now suggests that the truly successful not only don't have to dress, they barely have to shower and shave. This is how they let us know they're cool. It's as if they want to say "Sure, I'm a successful billionaire, but I'm still me. I didn't sell out to ‘the man.'"
OK, so you didn't sell out to the man. You don't even look like a man. You look like a boy. I think men should look like men, not middle-schoolers.
My brother-in-law is a high level executive at GE. He doesn't even have to wear a tie to work. Maybe the new GE dress code is: try to look like a college kid on a budget, that's how we'll know you're really smart.Anyone who has been watching the retro TV series Mad Men can tell you - old style is where it's at. Those men looked GOOD. The hats, the cuff-links, the pressed shirts, the pocket squares. Men, ask any woman. That look is 1,000 times sexier than a hoodie.
Pity the man who wants to dress nicely. He would be thought of as frivolous. "What's wrong with that guy? Why is he hiding behind those fancy clothes? He must be stupid."
To a certain extent, fashion is always hand-in-hand with tyranny. You must look a certain way to make a certain statement. Americans are obsessed with money and with youth, so the hoodie is the perfect statement. It says: I'm so successful I never need to grow up.
This month college graduates will be launching themselves into the job market. Here's my advice to you grads: don't get a new wardrobe for that interview. Just pull out some old rag you wore for finals. Your success is assured.
Pam Lobley writes the "Now That's Funny" column. Sign up for her mailing list at www.pamlobley.com.
