Dressing for Dinner – If you are easily insulted , please do not read any further.

The great dressing down of America has been going for the last few decades and I must say that men appear to be in the vanguard of this dress-to-regress army. I realize that as the 21st century progresses American and European society has become more causal. But that casual dress has become (especially in America) slovenly dress. Yes, you will point to Europe and say but they have skipped their ties and jackets, but ah! Still Europeans seem to be more acutely aware than most American’s that certain articles of clothing are simply not worn in certain places. In American, we have come to this, where men will not only wear a baseball cap to dinner, but wears it backwards.I find that American men ( and women) wish not to be adults but want to be children again and certainly act and dress like it..  Different times? Yes, Sartorial evolution? Try devolution. Dressing shabbily for any restaurants above the level of a fast food joint, is an affront not only to fellow dinners but to the owner. Unfortunately, many owners themselves have given up, adopting a style of dress that helps make ill-clad customers feel comfortable. Many owners pride themselves of faded jeans and open neck shirts and to me, it makes them look more like the fellow who delivers the vegetables than the man who pays for them. Of course American clients contend that their turtleneck sweater is cashmere or their golf jacket is Italian suede, but of course, they mistake good fabric for good manners. Dining out, to my mind after all, isn't just about the food, it’s also about such things as service and ambiance and that all taken together should create a pleasurable experience. That is why when I am asked, what restaurants in Los Angeles do you like, I can think of none, as most today have become playpens, not restaurants and none have created a pleasurable experience for me for a long long time. Men tell me, that donning a jacket and tie is a form of strangulation even thought they work in their white collar jobs without any apparent loss of breath. To them I say, buy a larger-size shirt and learn how to tie your tie. Ah! but especially in Southern California, those same men say they should be permitted to wear anything they please to a restaurant, maintaining that their money is as good as that of a person in a coat and a tie. Such logic suggests an arrogance about privilege that’s no more attractive today than it’s ever been. To me, dress that is appropriate the restaurant in question shows a person respects his hosts, guests and fellow dinners. It seems to me that American men ( and Women) wish to regress and become children again and not adults - it can be seen in their appearance and behavior -  And perhaps most important of all, they should serve as a model to their children – that than the other way around.