The sloppy majority.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: Public dressing

A RECENT ARTICLE in The New York Times noted that Hollywood types now are wearing flip-flops--shoes appropriate for beachcombers--to business meetings. A new level--or should I say depth--of causal has been plumbed. Decades ago, Californians were forgiven their sloppy attire as unique to their somewhat frivolous culture.

Elsewhere during that bygone era, people were careful how they dressed when seen in public and certainly when going to the office. Fine restaurants required men to wear a jacket and tie--and a woman in slacks was not in proper evening attire. No one would think of traveling by plane in shorts or wearing anything but their best clothes for attending a church service, concert, wedding, or funeral. In general, people of even modest means took a certain pride in their public appearance. Look at old newsreels of baseball games and you will see most of the men in a shirt and tie.

Walk through an airport today and you have to strain to find a man wearing a jacket (forget the shirt and tie) or a women in a nice skirt. If so, they clearly are over 60. The standard for dressing down continues to decline. Neckties and suits no longer are fashionable; male models think it cool to have a face full of stubble. A rock star slouches onto the stage in his undershirt. Think about it: Dean Martin never failed to appear in Las Vegas in anything but his tux, and Frank Sinatra always was dressed to the nines when seen in public. That was the standard.

One can hear it said that, in the larger scheme of things, with global warming nuclear proliferation, and rampant terrorism, does it really matter what people wear to restaurants or in airports? Yet, in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, when we faced fascism, communism, the Cold War, and a nuclear arms race, people bothered about their appearance. Of course it matters. Dress reflects many things about ourselves and our culture. It tells us about standards, deportment, pride, and character.

In Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, historian Gordon S. Wood explores the issue of the relationship of character to self-government. That extraordinary generation was very conscious of how it conducted itself and appeared in public. No one was more aware of this than George Washington. The world was watching whether or not the American experiment in self-government would survive. The Founding Fathers knew that civility and virtue in a citizenry were essential to this experiment and that its...