“Well dressed, what does that actually mean? It means to be correctly dressed.
Correctly dressed! It is as if with these words I have revealed a secret that up till now has cloaked our perception of fashion. Words like lovely, chic, elegant, fetching and snappy are but vain attempts to provide explanatory terms for fashion. But this is not at all the point. It is all about being dressed in an inconspicuous manner. A red tailcoat stands out in a ballroom. Therefore red tails are not fashionable in a ballroom. A top hat stands out on an ice rink, therefore it is unfashionable to wear while ice-skating. Anything conspicuous in high society is considered crude.”
My modern interpretation of the above is:
Don’t wear black tie to a sports game and likewise don’t wear chinos and a sweater to an evening do.
