I wish I had an 8 figure salary! LOL
We shall dress with modesty (1Tim2:9), why dress like rich lawyers or wealthy financiers?
by Mr Fool 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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LongHairGal
MrFool:
Well, that's because they wish they were or at least had the paycheck of one.
It used to gripe me to no end that JWs insisted everybody there look "businesslike" but yet didn't really believe in worldly business or careers.
I always felt there was a wrong translation with this "dress modestly" issue. There is the element of actual modesty as in morality wise (not too tight or too short). But, there is also the element of materialism in there, which is what I think YOU are referring to.
Who is actually to say how much somebody's clothing should cost? This is really a personal matter. Unless somebody is rhinestone studded, it shouldn't even be an issue.
Even though you might see an unsophisticated JW here and there with bad taste, I think the days of brothers with cheap polyester suits are a thing of the past in most areas.
My problem is that the JWs want to give the world the impression they are educated and career minded because they know people would run like hell from people who are poor or who promote poverty.
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MadGiant
With all due respect:
In sale contacts-social intercourse the first impression is of vital importance as it is rightly said, "first impression is the last impression". It is his appearance that makes or mars his case. Outward appearance is the very base for the customers to size up the salesman before he attempts to size up the prospect. A conscientious salesman makes an effort to present himself favourably to the prospect. A good, neat and alluring appearance is a mu to succeed, particularly in sales career. The appearance of a salesman is made of vital element namely, cleanliness, grooming and his clothes.
'Cleanliness' is something that guarantees good health. It is but natural that customer do not like to buy from a salesman whose hands are dirty, has a bad breath, has a bodily odour Well washed hair and clean hands make certainly greater impression than bright neck-ties an fancy and updated dress. 'Grooming' implies due care for the face, hair and hands. Care of face does not mean use of costly cosmetics but the facial expression as it is the index of mini He should have natural and never fading smile; in fact smiling is an art to be learnt as to ho best to smile. It is said a good salesman smiles with his eyes and mouth and not with tummy. The smile should never be dry, artificial or condescending. "If you smile, the world smiles with you." Therefore, a salesman who weeps has to keep the goods with him."
He should be clean shaven, hairs well dressed, nails well cut and maintained. His 'clothing add to his personality. 'Attire' or 'dress' has its matching role. Salesman is not a fashion mode
His dress must not be too gaudy and expensive, like a bridegroom nor like a clown or a dundy. To be well-dressed for sales- career, the clothes need not be expensive, but perfectly tailored and the design contemporary. Good taste of clothing of salesman does away with extremes of style and excitement, clothes should be simple, clean, conservative and appropriate yet pressed. Above all, his shoes must be well polished and matching to his attire.
http://www.preservearticles.com/201101193569/physical-qualities-of-a-salesman.html
Ismael
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prologos
BU2B: you said: -- 8 figure salary?
I wish I had a 8 figure period.
then I would not need those Larry King suspenders.
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neverendingjourney
There was an elder at my old hall who absolutely loved playing dress up. Before he was an elder his wife told me she knew he would "accept the truth" because Witnesses would walk around in suits looking important. That was right up her husband's alley.
Before they became witnesses, they had jointly run up their credit cards and maxed out every credit line they could get. They lived like upple middle class folks, but he made 10 dollars and hour and she worked two office cleaning jobs. After they became witnesses they downsized and went into a debt consolidation program, but they always wanted to appear to be of a different social class.
This is a very long way of saying that while their dress code is mostly a negative, there are some who are drawn to it because they like to feel important.
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Band on the Run
The bad suits are so tacky! I've noticed this since I was a child. When I moved to a posher suburb, I saw it everday on the train as I commuted. Tailored clothes require excellent fabric and impeccable tailoring. An off the rack suit might pass but the truly tailored ones stand out. When I first started out teh law firm, I immediately noticed when a male classmate spent a few more hundred dollars on tailoring.
No, most Witness males look like they sell shoes-in a cheap place. College profs and artists don't don the corporate suits. Look around any arts neighborhod or university in any city. Men wear blue jeans that are well cut and oxfort or polo type shirts. The jeans are well cut. Ralph Lauren polos are abundant. Nevertheless, they look appropriate and professional.
Once in Manhattan, you had to spend a lot to feel comfortable in certain places. Today you are welcome in any luxury store with well cut jeans and a T shirt. I also don't think you need ten pairs of jeans. Compared to my youth, casual clothing is very appropriate.
As a woman who sews and purchases, I know I can get away with some sloppiness when I sew a dress or blouse. I never learned how to tailor b/c I was a teenager and tailored clothing was for older people. The Beatles did not encourage a tailored lifestyle after they gave up their matching Beatle Pierre Cardin type suits. Tailoring is not forgiving.
The Witness men, in particular, stand out in any crowd by their dress. I can't say that I see many frumpy sisters. In fact, the sisters are fashion statements. When I am on a crowded subway, I know immediately that Bethelites are on the train. Of course, they don't stand out as Hasidim but they are well on the path. Furthermore, I recall my father was a laborer so the money for those meeting and field service suits were for one purpose only. The cheap suits highlight the class status of most JWs rather than disguise it. Casual Friday clothes would make more sense.
Being well-groomed is a sign of respect. When I started interviewing at firms as a law student, the men were told to spend around $500. for a Calvin Klein or similar business suit in navy or navy pin-stripe. A second suit could be gray. Wash out a shirt between interviews. It was a whopping sum for students with no income. Fortunately, the school offered loans to those in need. Many is the new associate who had to obtain loans from their future law firm to appear appropriately dressed when they started work. This was decades ago so the price must be even higher. The reality was that $500. was the going sum for corporate attire. If you wore lesser suits, it was noted.
I don't think the Twelve or Paul showed up to interact with people in corporate attire. More than likely, they were dressed in normal garb. Cheap suits drive me nuts. Perhaps it was that I came of age in the 1960s wearing blue jeans, including to law school competitions. The dress was a social statement. It was egalitarian. I do not wear jeans to church as a sign of respect. Episcopal churches, even in the wealthiest neighborhoods, are full of people in chino type casual wear. I notice other churches dress this way, too.
Someone in corporate attire with no corporate job knocking at my door would startle me. I would wonder why the government lawyers were coming to arrest me and throw me in a dungeon. Mad Men characters dress differently in the 1960s than the 1950s. Society has provided a universal dress in America and Europe. Polyester fabric shows. It is not important in the long run. Only one more signal how out of touch with the financial needs, class tensions within a congregation, and comfort of the public they are. Might I add that under ecclesiastical vestments on a day of worship, I see priests in jeans or chinos.
Am the I only one who thinks that sisters blend most of the time and the men rarely do? Perhaps more is going on than bad tailoring.
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Calebs Airplane
I hope that smoking hot pioneer notices my new suit. I had to work a lot of overtime at Joe's Window Cleaners to buy this damn thing.
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SadElder
My lawyer wears jeans in the office most of the time. Never wore a cheap suit in my life, there is something about a well made suit that just makes it a little easier to put up with having to wear one.
I remember one time another elder in my hall came up and complimented me on a tie I was wearing. Said "wow that tie must have cost $20." At first I didn't want to correct him, but then thought better of it since he was always such a know it all to others. When I told him it cost about $100 he got green in the face and walked away speechless. It was worth the cost of the tie just to see it.
There are times in business when suits may be a necessity but I'm just as comfortable, if not more so, in a pair of jeans now.
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Band on the Run
I volunteer for social/political causes often through bar groups. There is a great deal of effort to educate 7th graders in basic American civics so future generations of Americans will not see the Supreme Court and lawyers as monsters but an institution and people playing a certain, proscibed role. Many important federal judges have agreed to particpate. We go into classrooms and run a very interesting program as a team. Former teachers taught us how to behave with the children. The final rule was to NOT show up in any lawyer suits but casual wear. Poor children have quite a number of run ins with lawyers engaged in very spooky business for the childen.
Every voter integrity program I attend ends with the "No lawyer suits" rules. I thought a suit at the polls might lend an air of authority. We were told such thinking showed how distant we were from reality. Since it was a Democratic campagin, the powers that be wanted to signal approachability. If you must wear your suit to court later in the day, bring it in a suit bag. Don't wear it. They wanted basic L.L. Bean wear.
The large corporate law firms still require regular suits at the firm unless it is casual Friday or very late on a weeknight. Powerful clients walk through all the time. Since the firms are so big, not every lawyer has an idea of who the clients are. With the exception of large firms, the only time I see lawyers in suits now is for court appearances. A suit may hang in the office, if needed.
I have not encountered a physician in a corporate suit ever. My high school French teacher also taught us a nugget of information. High school was quite the fashion competiton until the hippie contingent arrived spearhead by myself. He said that French schoolchildren wear smocks over their clothes to eliminate a source of class friction.
I suppose the GB has such little grounding in the routine world they do not know better. We had several dandies at the KH which was a wholly other social phenomenon. No money for food or gas money but what a man's fashion world.
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sir82
As others have noted: No bank president I am aware of wears a $79.99 polyester special from Men's Wearhouse.
