Just what are you wearing?!

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” Mark Twain.

I was reminded of this when junior - being sick and under-the-weather over the weekend - caused the emergency Toy Story DVD box set to be cracked open, and after the little one had hurled at the end of Toy Story 2 (a harsh critical response I felt), I ended up with a dozing sick child on my knee smelling slightly of vomit as we segued into Toy Story 3.  The specific scene (which banished any thoughts and odours of sick temporarily) was that in which Ken models his outfits for Barbie to a musical soundtrack 

Parents here seem to dress their children quite carefully (not as carefully as their dogs… but nearly) – Junior Papa Latte just looks like himself whatever you put him in.  I have form in this area being 70s teenager who owned his share of platforms and flares, but I would argue it’s all about context as to whether you look daft.

Some dressing up examples to illustrate:

•       Promotional brochure from my days as a ‘scientist’, see pic (please no laughing). They were clearly stuck in the 1960s central casting view of scientists-(White coat, clipboard, glasses…) and then they wanted me to put some emotion into it – “Look concerned about your (test) engine” they said.  As you can see – emoting isn’t one of my good things – well I’d be concerned about my engine if we had just broken down in pouring rain in the middle of no-where with a couple of screaming littlies in the back of the car, but as I recall emoting for the camera was not part of the interview process when I joined. Notwithstanding my lack of smouldering emotion this picture popped up in all sorts of Shell publications for about 10 years subsequently.

 

•       Fast forward to the Early 90s and life in the fast lane – as part of technical support to an F1 team the silly coloured trousers and shirt covered in company logos were de rigeur.  The uniform combined with the compressed timescale of a race weekend gave you a form of temporary credibility and authority –like that Stanford University Experiment  (http://www.prisonexp.org/ ) – well maybe not quite as extreme but dealing with some of the morally flexible characters in Motorsport it was important not to become the uniform! 
•          Talking Balls! in India in 2009, see pic.  Flashing your legs at journalists wearing a silly striped shirt got their attention whilst trying to raise profile of, and money for youth rugby in Bangalore – OK perhaps they were also drawn by Vinay (a rugby player who also happens to be a local movies heart-throb). If you are confident you can get away with anything – clothes, rules, whatever – here we used the rugby ball as a talking stick – so the journalists could only ask a question after catching the ball and then throw it the member of the panel they wanted to answer it.

 

The point of all this is - let your littlies wear what they want and feel comfortable in – if they don’t match who cares! 

I may put my foot down if junior chooses some of the outfits Ken modelled – but this will only be to insist that we must also get one in my size so that we can go out as a matching pair ;-)