Suit up!

Is there any logic to fashion? I ask because I really don't know, and I'm not convinced that Yahoo! answers does either. I use the suit as an example because it's a type of dress that is universally agreed-upon to be fancy, or "dressed up." Look at a picture of the G20 if you don't believe me.

Incidentally, I was wondering about the part in The Dark Knight where Lucius Fox says that "three buttons are a little '90's." What are we doing now - back to two? Four? Five? Is it like that old Onion article, Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades except for suit buttons? I have no idea. Good thing I hardly ever wear suits.

But why is that? What is it about a suit that people recognize as classy and formal? Why does a business suit give off that impression, while a clown suit doesn't? Why does a hooded sweatshirt look less professional than a button-down dress shirt? I'm sure it has a lot to do with culture - you get accustomed to seeing Presidents and CEO's in suits from a young age, and of course they're going to strike you as dress-up clothes. But they had to become accepted as such in the first place - how did that happen? And do we think that even if from our childhood we saw Presidents and CEO's wearing clown suits or hoodies that they would then seem dressed up? I doubt it. As with my monologue on why funny words sound funny, I suppose it has to do with both culture and the innate aesthetics of the object.

While I'm here, If you watch sports very often, you've probably noticed that almost everyone who appears on television to discuss or commentate upon sports wears a suit. Have we thought about whether this makes any sense? Where was this committee that decided which professions would be suit-wearing ones and which wouldn't? I'm a scientist, and no one I work with - other scientists, engineers, managers, executives - wears a suit to work. Yet every Sunday, there's these fellows on TV talking about sports, something that, let's face it, is really really trivial, dressed to the nines. Like, without exception. Wouldn't it make a little more sense to have these dudes dressed in polo shirts, given the extremely low gravitas of their work? I'm confused.