Saturday 30 January 2010

Dress Code

I don't blame Tesco for banning customers in night attire, just as I don't blame primary heads who have had to send letters home asking that mothers leaving and collecting their offspring not do so pyjama-clad. I blame those who are now claiming that this practice, completely unheard of 15 years ago, is somehow part of "working-class culture". What, not getting dressed? Since when? The very opposite used to be the case. But then, in those days, there really was a working-class culture. Since, in those days, there really was work.
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2 comments:

  1. Mr. Piccolo30 January 2010 at 19:29

    Some people are always blaming the working-class for what they perceive as the decline of culture. The "proletarianization" of culture I think they call it. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents were working class, and they never stayed in their pajamas all day.

    In the US, you can see people wearing pajamas in public in pretty much any neighborhood, rich or poor. The practice is especially common on college campuses. Perhaps that is where the practice started? I don't know.

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  2. Anonymous1 February 2010 at 12:15

    There was an excellent piece in Saturday's Daily Telegraph by Gill Hornby on this subject.

    She says that "pyjamas got caught up in the ascendancy of loungewear and confusion arose".

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