What we wear is part of our Perfect Propriety; our clothes represent not only how we feel about ourselves but how we choose to present ourselves to others, as individuals and as part of Society. So here we come to National Dress Day, blatantly retail and concocted by a couturiere in 2011, but get this founding sentiment: “. . . as a way to relive and celebrate our dearest dress memories.”
As soon as Etiquetteer read that the news coverage of Pat and Richard Nixon’s 50th wedding anniversary came to mind*. The caption under the newspaper photo read that Mrs. Nixon had chosen to wear one of her favorite Adele Davis suits from when she was First Lady; you can see the photo here. A matron of Etiquetteer’s acquaintance sniffed “Couldn’t she have afforded something new?” But Etiquetteer understood immediately the value of sentiment that led Mrs. Nixon to trot out that suit for a spin down memory lane. What could be more Perfectly Proper?
Queen Victoria, famously sentimental, kept having her wedding gown altered for her swelling avoirdupois so that she and Prince Albert could wear their wedding clothes on every wedding anniversary. Margaret Brown, famous for taking command of a Titanic lifeboat, would continually alter and update her gowns to keep wearing them if she had had a good time in them. In a more poignant (and fictional) vein, Peggy Sue wears her old prom dress to her 25th high school reunion in Peggy Sue Got Married.
Gentlemen can play along with their own wardrobes, of course. Etiquetteer still retains that first Calvin Klein double-breasted suit, complete with shoulder pads and peaked lapels, though Etiquetteer’s College Waistline is suppressed like a tree ring deep within its trunk. And there are neckties and bow ties associated with special events, places, or people.
This is a wonderful day to go burrowing through your closets to unearth what you wore that made you feel Perfectly Proper, plan to wear it again, preserve it, or “move it forward into the Universe.”
Victoria and Albert in their wedding clothes after a Drawing Room.
*You were just thinking of it yourself, weren’t you? 😉