Relax, Your Pants Aren’t Going Anywhere
Dear Fashion Police: I’m a man who likes to wear suspenders, but sometimes I like to wear them with a belt. I’ve been told this is a fashion taboo. What do you think?
--IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION
Dear Suspended: We think you must have an incredibly hard time keeping your pants up. What other excuse could you possibly have for wearing suspenders and a belt? Do you wear a baseball cap and a fedora? Do you wear shorts and pants? No. Then why would you wear suspenders and a belt?
Both do the same job: They keep your pants from falling down. So unless you have some pathological fear of suddenly dropping trou or getting pantsed, we strongly suggest you stick with one or the other.
While we’re on the subject, we hope that yours are not the clip-on kind, which have a 1970s-era street mime quality about them. Slacks made to wear with suspenders have small buttons on the inside of the waistband that fasten to tabs at the end of the suspender straps. The slacks also have no belt loops, so they won’t look odd without a belt. Adjust the straps so they’re not too tight, otherwise they’ll yank your trousers way up, creating a most unfortunate look.
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Dear Fashion Police: Could you please help me find a source for men’s jumpsuits, which many retired men have discovered to be very comfortable and preferable to sweats or slacks and shirts for leisure wear? My husband is 6 foot 4, and we need them in tall sizes.
--TRYING TO GET
A JUMP ON IT
Dear Trying: Sorry, no can do. The only people who should wear jumpsuits are the following: children under the age of 2, auto or airplane mechanics, hazardous-materials workers and Jack LaLanne. Jumpsuits may be comfortable, but they are in the same category as leisure suits for men of a certain age. They don’t look retro, they don’t look vintage, they just look dated and weird. Trousers and polo shirts or sport shirts are the way to go. Honest.
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Dear Fashion Police: I am trying to figure out the correct way to button a man’s three-button suit. I have seen everything: all the buttons buttoned, just the top button, the two top buttons, and just the middle button. I prefer the top two buttoned, but which is correct?
--BUTTONED UP
Dear Buttoned: You have two options: You can button the top two, as you’ve been doing, or just the middle one. Not all three, and not just the bottom one. With a two-button jacket, only the top button is fastened. And on a one-button jacket--well--you can figure that one out.
From the Fashion Police Blotter: After we ran a question from “Nervous” a couple of weeks ago about recycling a mother-of-the-bride dress (we suggested she go for it), we got this letter from a reader, which we’d like to share:
“I was married May 31, 1975, and at the time my mother was unable to find a dress to her liking, so she decided to make one. It was a pale yellow sheath with a print chiffon jacket, both full-length. She looked beautiful. Over the years Mom made almost all of her clothes, plus mine and my sister’s. Everyone at the wedding remarked how beautiful she looked and asked where she had gotten her dress.
“Over the years my mother wore that dress again and again, including on many cruises she and my father took. She made much use of a dress that others would have donated or left hanging in a closet. Before my mother passed away last year, she told me she wanted to be buried in that yellow dress. Her wish was fulfilled, but I will never forget the way she looked in it the first time. I give my mother a big salute, and to all others who don’t care if someone knows they’ve worn a dress more than once.”
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Write to Fashion Police, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, fax to (213) 237-4888, or send e-mail to socalliving@latimes.com.
