Standards of dress

[pwhole]

Like what Kid Creole used to wear, you mean? Or not that kind of lounge?

 

[Cantclimbtom]

No, but if you turned up at a formal event in a full on zoot suit, I think you should get extra points for having the cohones to do it

 

[Ed]

Definitely correct about white tie & morning suit.

I was just thinking about semi formal.
Any formal event wouldn't segue from day time to evening.

 

[andrewmcleod]

I only wear my semi-formal outfit these days (black tie with dinner jacket, matching trousers with stripe, cummerbund, hand-tied bow tie and dress shirt) for the BEC Dinner, which I think is suitably counter-culture (although many/most do dress up well). It is immediately changed out of, of course, at the following party (and I typically end up in gold hotpants or less)...

I must admit to my shame that my bow tie is an adjustable model. I did used to have a proper dress shirt with detachable collars (wing-tip, another faux-pas for black tie purists of course) and screw-on buttons but the collar went yellow with excessive starch/ironing, and getting your detachable collars laundered is difficult in these modern times (i.e. not the 19th century)

I do have a white tie set as well, purchased cheap off eBay (tailcoat, white bow tie, backless Marcella waistcoat etc), but I never really wore it for anything other than fancy dress (given the precisely zero times I have been invited to an evening engagement with the Queen, other suitable nobility, or the Opera in the 1950s). These days I'm more comfy in the hot pants (although the tailcoat probably hides the belly better)...

 

[mrodoc]

Like the pic!! Apologies if off topic, is that camera an Olympus, perhaps an Olympus trip? (Which was my first camera)

That photo of me was taken on 16/3/69 when I had just turned 18.  It was our second trip into the newly discovered Baker's Pit Extension. On the first trip the OR drove me and a school friend down and then couldn't get through the squeeze much to his chagrin. Another way in was found during the year hence the second visit.  I think the camera I used on that trip was a Cosmic (a Russian fixed lens cheap 35 mm camera). My next camera was a Praktica.  The spare lighting was something we came up using a carbide clipped onto the side of the helmet. Came in handy on a few occasions when the battery (ex NCB Nife Cells) packed up. Never saw much caving what with the specs steaming up and the relatively poor lighting compared to what we have nowadays. I thank goodness for fleeces, oversuits, LED lights and contact lenses that have allowed me to carry on caving in comfort.

 

[mrodoc]

Veering right off topic but as somebody was interested in the camera here is a link: https://www.lomography.com/magazine/179132-cosmic-35-lovely-little-lomo-camera

 

[David Rose]

Chaps. My comment re dress standards. I've been away caving so I missed all this kerfuffle. It was meant to be a joke. Y'know. Humour.

I hate black tie. I think I've worn it twice in the past 20 years when there was no choice. Why go out and dress like a waiter? I've never worn white tie in my life.

 

[Badlad]

Disappointing Dave, thought you might be the last bastion of the dinner dress code 

At the NCC dinners of old, one simply had to dress down for dinner, due to the inevitable food fighting which ensured.  I particularly remember a fine dinner at the Punch Bowl, Low Row where the profiterole bombardment took on the gravy syringes.  With help from the military the profiteroles won. 

Another at the Hill Inn was memorable due to the trifle being served over ones head. 

 

[Duncan Price]

Another at the Hill Inn was memorable due to the trifle being served over ones head.

At an ATLAS Xmas dinner a well-known caver/graphic designer had a plate of pavlova placed on his chair when he stood up to address the group.  An accomplice then told him to "Shut up and sit down!" and the inevitable happened...

I was at the CDG dinner in September - I would have dressed up to attend but was pleased that the dress code did not require this as we walked to the venue from Whitewalls (and back again afterwards).  One of our party did wear a nice frock (and walking boots).

 

[Laurie]

Like the pic!! Apologies if off topic, is that camera an Olympus, perhaps an Olympus trip? (Which was my first camera)

That photo of me was taken on 16/3/69 when I had just turned 18.  It was our second trip into the newly discovered Baker's Pit Extension. On the first trip the OR drove me and a school friend down and then couldn't get through the squeeze much to his chagrin. Another way in was found during the year hence the second visit.  I think the camera I used on that trip was a Cosmic (a Russian fixed lens cheap 35 mm camera). My next camera was a Praktica.  The spare lighting was something we came up using a carbide clipped onto the side of the helmet. Came in handy on a few occasions when the battery (ex NCB Nife Cells) packed up. Never saw much caving what with the specs steaming up and the relatively poor lighting compared to what we have nowadays. I thank goodness for fleeces, oversuits, LED lights and contact lenses that have allowed me to carry on caving in comfort.

Bakers Extension was so pristine white then. 'twas a shame, despite all the effort, it didn't last.

 

[thehungrytroglobite]

poor standards of dress?! I don't know what you're talking about.