Dressing Up

I’ve noticed that people at Salem have been, on average, dressing up for church. This is not something I have been promoting. I resort to Hardy Amies’ ABC of Fashion (1964). On dressing up to go to the opera, he writes:

Correct dressing at the opera is a compliment to the management and to the artistes. It is another form of applause. Of the theatre, however, he writes:

Theatre is of course much less important than opera. The same rules apply but need be enforced less stringently; except for plays by Shakespeare, Congreve, Sheridan, Wilde, Shaw, Wesker and Pinter’.

On dress for church, he says nothing, perhaps confirming that he was more a part of the modern world than he imagined. A man of modest taste, I can’t say I've enjoyed the opera when I’ve been; I was too impatient and wished the singers to get on with it and make their point. Theatre trips, though, are pleasant enough. It’s at church, however, that we hear ‘the words of eternal life’. Dress as you see fit, but what you hear there is more important than any overture, act or aria. Little wonder that some folk like to dress up.