Lily's Snooty and Condescending Blog du Jour

America needs a dress code. Honestly, what people think is appropriate.

So today some friends and I decide we're going out to brunch. The restaurant is a fairly nice one -- waiters in jackets and ties, real tablecloths on the tables, etc. I'd classify it as "mid-priced". We show up in what we consider to be "casual" clothes -- slacks, sweaters or blouses and a jacket, hair done, some minimal make-up. Not fancy, but appropriate for going out in public.

I had decided against wearing jeans, even though with the rise of $200+ "fashion" jeans, they do seem to go anywhere now. I am just old enough that I was raised to believe that one does not wear jeans to a restaurant, although if it's casual enough I've been known to do it with a nice shirt and blazer, and with jeans cut in the current "fashion" style. (although as a digression, I just can't bring myself to pay that much for jeans. I once bought ONE pair for $88, and it involved a lot of angst, but they fit perfectly and looked great. Secret to all of you out there -- Target makes very good fashionable jeans, and I've never paid more that $30 for them. Old Navy doesn't do so badly either, although the pair I just bought are freaking me out, as everytime I put them on, I see my mother's ass. My mother is slim and fit etc, so it's not that it's huge, but for some reason that's what I see when I put them on. Lots of Pilates in my near future.)

However, waiting to be seated, the number of people -- women (we'll do a different blog about how men just don't know how to dress any more) -- who turned up in old "mom" jeans, ratty old sweatshirts, ratty old hair, no makeup, was astonishing. I kept looking around for the dog-walking and house-painting convention signs. Didn't see any. I think some of these same people turned up at Thanksgiving at restaurant that I'd assess as one step higher on the scale than this one. Thanksgiving day -- a holiday -- and a nice restaurant. We admittedly overdressed just a tad on Thanksgiving because we wanted to wear some of our fun clothes, but good gravy folks, if you don't show respect for yourselves, show some for the people who have to look at you. Clinton and Stacey really do have a point.

Now I don't expect people to put on their tiaras and ball gowns to go out to eat, but for heaven's sake, what happened to that line between being at home in your house clothes and going out for some kind of social activity? No dress code for Home Depot or the grocery store required (although with some of what I've seen in there, perhaps there should be -- America, you're overweight so you need to reconsider skimpy shorts and cheap lingerie tops), but to go out to a restaurant that isn't McDonald's or a diner at 3 am? Get dressed. And it's not a finance thing -- there's cheap-ass clothes out there, Target's doing some really nifty things with unnatural fabrics nowadays, and Macy's sales at 75% off, with a coupon, means that I've paid under ten bucks for a LOT of decent clothes. And if you're coming to these restaurants, you can afford them.

I'm sure there's some allegory to be made about the blurred line between public and private behavior, what's TMI to reveal to casual strangers either at a party or on a TV talk show, but at the moment I just want to give America a makeover, some rules, and a kick in the pants.