Latest / Brian Thomas / Clothes Make the Man - Big Picture with Jack Atherton

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Clothes Make the Man - Big Picture with Jack Atherton · Brian Thomas

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Seven oh six. Here figure about canosy do you talk station?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: It being a Wednesday, which is also a listener lunch
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Wednesday and medicine pub and girl hope to see you there.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It is that time of week when we are blessed
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: with the brilliance of Jack Avidan with the big pictures.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: What would like to call this segment Welcome back Jack Avidan.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: It's just always a thrill to heavy on my show.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, friend. Uh. Most of the guys listening
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: are not the biggest fans of chick flicks, but inspired
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: by one of the most stylish and fun movies Amesley
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: and I have seen in a long time, The Devil
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Wears Prada too. Let's talk Brian about fashion and society.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I don't mean high society, and forgive the bad pun,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: we're gonna skirt the question of women's fashion. I haven't
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: managed to stay married forty three years by critiquing women's fashion,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: although as you know, both our wives always look mafulous.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: My outfit of choice and retirement is a T shirt
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and jim shorts, not because I'm a bodybuilder, as you know,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: just following the trend of guys today looking casual.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Do you have a lot you tube socks? Are you wearing?
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  Speaker 2: Kids always looked jack kids?
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  Speaker 1: Hey, Jack can't wear me? Oh I just had to
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: interject and inquire whether that T shirt and short comba
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: was also including tube socks and sandals at the same time.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, I managed to get in a pair of sninkers,
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  Speaker 2: old fashioned sneakers. You know me? Okay, now, kids, Kids
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  Speaker 2: have always looked like kids, whether they were ductailed greasers
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: in the nineteen fifties or hippies who grew their hair
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: longer than rapunzels, right down to the grunge kids of
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: today who make homeless guys looked like Beau Brummel. Does
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: anybody remember Beau Brummel. He invented what came to be
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: proper clothing for husbands, fathers, office workers what used to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: be called grown ups. He also invented democracy when it
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: came to modern clothing. Because fashion history, Brian reflects political history.
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  Speaker 2: You knew we'd get there. When society was run by aristocrats,
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  Speaker 2: the nobility unfurled its feathers like peacocks. In Shakespeare's time,
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  Speaker 2: courtiers sported bejeweled doublets. They displayed their legs in silk coths,
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  Speaker 2: Louis the fourteenth of France went a mincing step further
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  Speaker 2: decreeing that only noblemen were permitted to wear get this
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  Speaker 2: ruby red high heels, and King Louis wore wigs that
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: made shares look like a buzz cut. Through the first
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  Speaker 2: decades of American independence, dandies in France and Britain replaced
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  Speaker 2: bathing with perfume and makeup. Beau Brummel changed all that.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't have the money for jewels and embroidered gold vests,
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  Speaker 2: so the Beau convinces society, including the Prince of Wales,
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  Speaker 2: that ornate clothes are vulgar. Instead, this new arbiter of
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  Speaker 2: fashion insisted that a gentleman be clean and simply elegant,
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  Speaker 2: never join attention to himself. The bow invented modern suits.
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  Speaker 2: Think of the way mister Darcy dresses in pride and prejudice.
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  Speaker 2: Contrast our founding fathers, who were tough guys, but still
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  Speaker 2: they had powdered wigs, and they wore silken doublets and
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: things like that. And think of President Lincoln just a
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: few decades later, with his simple black suit and stove
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  Speaker 2: pipe hat. Speaking of presidents, how about Ronald Reagan, who,
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  Speaker 2: like President Trump, never entered the Oval Office without a
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  Speaker 2: suit and tie out of respect for the office. Counterculture
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  Speaker 2: Marxists protested all of that, and not just presidents. They
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  Speaker 2: mocked anyone who dressed like a capitalist tool inspired by
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  Speaker 2: Beau Brumble. Hippies really were rebelling against their buttoned down fathers.
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  Speaker 2: They were attacking the greatest generation that won World War Two.
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  Speaker 2: We built the free world and spoiled their kids. We're
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  Speaker 2: still living with that, with socialists down for the struggle.
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  Speaker 2: Forget is that the beau Brummel business suit gave every
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  Speaker 2: man a chance to improve his lot in life. It
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  Speaker 2: let the growing middle class dress like the upper class.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, the rich could order suits from Italy Savile Row.
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  Speaker 2: Carrie Grant had the suits he wore in movies tailored
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  Speaker 2: for him in London. A Hollywood film crew Brian as
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  Speaker 2: a practical joke, ordered an identical suit as the one
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  Speaker 2: he got from Savile Row, and they gave it to
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  Speaker 2: a monkey cart. It was not amused. But even if
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  Speaker 2: you couldn't afford a London tailor, dressing in a suit
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  Speaker 2: in time meant you were a proud member of America's
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  Speaker 2: fluid upwardly mobile, free market economy, a breadwinner, a man
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  Speaker 2: with a family and civic responsibilities. Now, don't get me wrong, friends,
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  Speaker 2: somebody gave me Fred Hauser. Thank you for this an
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  Speaker 2: autographed photo of Elon Musk, who is no less a
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  Speaker 2: visionary entrepreneur because he prefers T shirts and sneakers. But
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  Speaker 2: many other guys today who post COVID work from home,
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  Speaker 2: if they work at all. The number of people not
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  Speaker 2: looking for work is another thing we can talk about.
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  Speaker 2: Sometime they dress like arrested adolescents, and too often they
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  Speaker 2: vote like arrested adolescents. They're taught by leftist media and
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  Speaker 2: social media that America is and always has been unjust.
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  Speaker 2: They dress pro hamas protesters at Columbia and Harvard. Americans
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  Speaker 2: used to say, clothes make demand, and back when we
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  Speaker 2: had men who dressed for the next job they wanted,
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  Speaker 2: they did so once in a while for a business meeting.
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  Speaker 2: We're just for a date night with your wife, why
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  Speaker 2: not dress in your Sunday best now, Brian, I can
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  Speaker 2: hear my wife saying, stop talking and get your good
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  Speaker 2: suit back from the dry cleaners. But one last thing,
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  Speaker 2: and I know you will agree with me. My friend,
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  Speaker 2: there's no more honorable suit of clothes than a military
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  Speaker 2: or police uniform or the ordinary work clothes worn on
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  Speaker 2: the job by the men and women who make our
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  Speaker 2: country run. So what do you say?
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  Speaker 1: I agree with you absolutely in that last point. I
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  Speaker 1: guess the interesting question is, isn't it sort of a societal
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  Speaker 1: creation what constitutes appropriate dress at any given moment in history?
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  Speaker 1: How is it that red high heeled shoes were once
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  Speaker 1: the approved sophisticated You know who in the hell came
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  Speaker 1: up with that rule that was widely accepted? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: come on, who whose idea was that? And how did
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  Speaker 1: it become the norm to have the respectability meant wearing
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  Speaker 1: a suit? I don't any problem with the concept, but
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  Speaker 1: you know, if if I'm wearing a suit and tied
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  Speaker 1: to a Reds game when it's ninety degrees out, I
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  Speaker 1: think that's a stupid choice. But that's what people did.
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  Speaker 1: Part of the reason why is because you could only
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  Speaker 1: afford one suit, and many people wore that suit day
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  Speaker 1: in and day out. And I'm sure it got kind
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  Speaker 1: of gaming back in the nineteen twenties when you had
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  Speaker 1: your same suit over and over again, probably made of
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  Speaker 1: wool but that was the society accepted and expected clothing wear.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of guys would rather have been
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  Speaker 1: in T shirts and shorts or whatever the modern version
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  Speaker 1: of it was back then. I know I would. I
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: remember casual Fridays. I wore a suit every single day
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: of the week suit and time when I was practicing
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: lawn Chicago, along came casual Fridays. To the delight of
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: all the you know, sophisticated, well healed lawyers who were
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: representing multi millionaire clients. We couldn't wait for Fridays. And
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  Speaker 1: then it became the well you can dress casually business.
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  Speaker 1: Casual was always a business in front of it, so
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  Speaker 1: you couldn't wear you tube tops or whatever, but casual
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  Speaker 1: unless you were going to court. Court, there was an
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  Speaker 1: expectation you show up in a suit. I know that's
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  Speaker 1: gone by the wayside, and I know that seems disrespectful
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  Speaker 1: to the court and quite often proceed to be so
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  Speaker 1: when people show up in shorts and T shirts. But
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  Speaker 1: not everybody can afford a suit and the laundry bill
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  Speaker 1: that goes along with it, And I think that's the
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  Speaker 1: reason we kind of gravitated over toward this more relaxed
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  Speaker 1: approach to business wear. People who can't afford the laundry
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  Speaker 1: bill and the suits and the shirts that go along
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  Speaker 1: with it. I remember having shirts starched and dry clean
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  Speaker 1: a buck fifty a pop back in the nineties, and
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  Speaker 1: that was rather expensive, but it was something that we
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  Speaker 1: all took care of and paid for. My wife had
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  Speaker 1: to wear suits to work every single day. So there
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: seems to be a real weird balance here, But it's
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  Speaker 1: whatever society perceives to be appropriate is what is acceptable.
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  Speaker 1: And I think we have gone a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: way over the over the line when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: wearing yoga pants literally everywhere. I roll my eyes at that,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, I'm not the one making society's rules.
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  Speaker 1: Jack your retort to those observations, I have no retort.
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  Speaker 2: It's a free country. You can join a nudist colony
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  Speaker 2: if you like. I'm just certain the way that we
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  Speaker 2: dress is a reflection of the kind of society we have,
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  Speaker 2: And of course I'm not suggesting that big government ought
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  Speaker 2: to mandate the way.
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  Speaker 1: People don't know.
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  Speaker 2: The leftists after the Communist Revolution, Malse Tung ordered men
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  Speaker 2: to wear his signature mausuit if they weren't in a
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  Speaker 2: military uniform. That order was relaxed only after Joan Lai
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  Speaker 2: and Dungshaping opened China up to some measure of capitalism
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  Speaker 2: and American multinationals move their factories and jobs to China,
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  Speaker 2: which Trump is trying to reverse. Today, Jijungping is less
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  Speaker 2: interested in building up a red Chinese middle class. So
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  Speaker 2: who knows. Maybe those common uniforms are going to come back.
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  Speaker 2: But yes, people can do what they like, they can
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  Speaker 2: speak the way they like. A segment on profanity coming
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  Speaker 2: up soon. Of course, we've talked about music and the
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  Speaker 2: quality of movies today. Yeah, free society, but not necessarily
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  Speaker 2: the society that it works best.
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  Speaker 1: For us, Right, and I listen dictates from government, of
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  Speaker 1: course I'm going to reject, and most notably if it
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  Speaker 1: comes to something as individual as clothing choices. But again,
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  Speaker 1: what is accepted broadly by any given society really is
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  Speaker 1: ultimately what dictates what is appropriate and inappropriate. And I
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  Speaker 1: look over the globe and see different societies with different
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  Speaker 1: garb and wear, and I scratch my head over their choices.
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  Speaker 1: But then again, I don't live in their particular culture.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not advocating running around looking like a slob Jack.
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  Speaker 1: It's just that, you know, over time, things dramatically change,
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  Speaker 1: and I sure as hell don't want to go back
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  Speaker 1: to a time when society has an expectation that we
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  Speaker 1: all wear wigs and high heeled shoes, because if we
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  Speaker 1: go in that direction, then I'm going to be the
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  Speaker 1: one people are looking at, going that guy doesn't know
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  Speaker 1: how to dress it appropriately, and I'll be going, Yep,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm the modern day of a modern day
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  Speaker 1: hippie because I'm walking around in my old business casual attire,
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  Speaker 1: which at one point in time used to be societally acceptable.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the whole point of my talk was that
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  Speaker 2: the way we dressed used to reflect the fact that
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  Speaker 2: you had to be an aristocrat to be respected. When
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  Speaker 2: we got to the point where men dressed in what
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  Speaker 2: was considered a respectable fashion and one that allowed them
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  Speaker 2: to move up the social ladder, America was doing quite well.
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  Speaker 1: Yep. And then you can always think of Fetterman, who
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think did the senator service by walking around
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  Speaker 1: in sweatpants and T shirts. So there's always that kind
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  Speaker 1: of guy. Oh, and I got to make a quick
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: comment on hats Jack. His hats always drive me crazy.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: If it's a functional hat, fine, it keeps the rain
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: off you, it keeps the sun from beaten down. But
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: stupid hats have always been a problem for me, you know,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: like the bobbies that stand outside and guard the London
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: with those giant fur hats. I mean, what point do
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  Speaker 1: those things serve other than some sort of connection with history?
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  Speaker 1: And when did it become a functional hat? When did
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: that type of hat? Why was it designated for the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: military wear under that circumstances, when I think some other
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: form of hat would be far more functional and a
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: lot more comfortable and of course less expensive.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Britain is making a lot of money off tourists, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: then a lot of tourists take pictures of themselves next
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  Speaker 2: to those guys. Yeah, speaking of hats, you know, it's
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: interesting how fashion does change. Clark Gable is the one
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: who got a lot of men stopping wearing undershirts, right,
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  Speaker 2: and the movie had happened one night. Yeah, he took
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: off your shirt and he was just Clark Gable JFK.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: At his inauguration didn't want to wear a hat. And
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: the hat business really went downhill after that because people said,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: look at that guy with his full head of hair.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I don't need a hat.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: So what we need is modern social media influencers who
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: will bring brack a, bring back a higher expectation of
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: clothing wear so we all do look at least a
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: little more respectable, not like we're off to a gym.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Jack evident, always fun, always brilliant. Appreciate our banter back
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: and forth. And I appreciate you and your being on
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the programs always. I wish you and you better have
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Amsley a wonderful week. Much health and love to both
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of you. And we'll do this again. Actually not next Wednesday.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I'm off from my cancer recovery week, but we'll do
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: it again in two weeks.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and take care of yourself well.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Thanks. I appreciate that very much. Love you brother, have
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: a great week, seven nineteen If you five