Dressing for the theater — Page 2

This is my first post, after lurking for awhile. :)


I too have noticed the change over the last 25 years of theatre going. ...noticed, not judged. I tend to dress up (suit or dress) because that's what I feel good doing and it is normal for me. I also "dress" for work more than most, wearing suits most days, which has benefitted my career.


I don't really care what others wear, but for me, it is a sign of respect and also signifies a special event (not how I dress for a movie, for example). Others feel differently and that's ok. I like the idea that accepting casual dress removes some real or perceived "barriers to entry" and potentially gets more people into the theatre. I have also noticed how actors dress when they go to other shows, and it is frequently more casual than not, so I doubt they are in any way affected by patrons more casual dress. I think casual can also take many forms and clean, well fitting clothes in reasonable repair are a good practice.


We will be in the city at the end of this week with tickets for five shows. It will be hot and I hate hot. :). We will walk and I have some knee issues. Linen sheath dress and flats (or comfy shoes and dressy shoes in my bag to change into). That makes ME happy.


Bringing 8 year old and he will have first Broadway experience. It's important to me that he dresses appropriately. He will wear a collared shirt and chinos (not hugely dressed up but a step up from shorts and tees that he wears to school on West Coast). I've already had the conversation that others will dress differently, and that's ok, but I want him to learn that more traditional ways and sometimes dressing up a little opens doors in life, and it's easy to do.

I do agree with the statement. - don't wear a tank top and shorts and then complain about the AC being too cold in the theatre!

Updated On: 7/30/16 at 02:29 PM

PThespian said: "I would rather have a naked person sitting next to me than be sitting next to an empty seat."

Think of the possibilities! Broadway Nudist Night.

Those velour seats would never quite be the same again.

I think the people who are dressed way down are going to the show as a pit stop in their day. The theater isn't the main reason for the NYC visit whereas the tourists who are in town primarily for shows tend to dress much better.

The way it is in Australia was the way it used to be here. Sad to say it us another tradition that is dead and buried.

Updated On: 7/31/16 at 04:51 PM

One of my elective classes in undergrad was a course on the history of modern fashion. It spanned a period between the Industrial Revolution through to today. A lot of the people bemoaning the state of dress in America today are not in touch with the cultural influences that have shaped American attitudes to fashion, over the course of the 20th century particularly.

Americans' relationship to clothing in the last hundred years has been one of distaste for the rigid socioeconomic semiotics that were in place in Europe. The story of American fashion in the 20th century was all about deconstruction and appropriation. In the 1920s, women threw off their corsets and cut off their hair, and men doffed the heavy, often impractical suit for the sportcoat. Coco Chanel appropriated male military fashion into her dresses, which aimed to convey utilitarian effortlessness rather than flourish and fussiness. In a way, Chanel's utilitarian thrust summarizes the whole story of American fashion in the 20th century. The trend away from conspicuous markers of wealth in one's clothing continued during the Great Depression. Even among the tony, conservative New Englanders, we witnessed a move away from formal business attire to sportswear: what we consider "prep" style emerged from the adoption of things like madras shirts, polo shirts (originally for playing tennis), and the Oxford button-down (the button-down collar designed to keep out of the face of polo players). You could no longer rely on a person's clothing to tell you their class, as trying TOO hard to "dress up" was looked upon as gauche. It was also around that period that the blue jean (originally devised by Levi Strauss for gold miners, and taken up by farmers and cowboys) entered the mainstream.

This process accelerated in the 1960s with the counterculture, Second Wave feminism, and the discovery of an entirely new market for clothing manufacturers: teenagers. Before this time, teens dressed mostly like their parents. After the Baby Boom, young people had considerably more disposable income, and presented an excellent opportunity for marketing departments. The glorification of youth that runs into present day attitudes about fashion began in this period. There is also another theme that has run through the last century: that of masculinity. Dressing too formally or paying too much attention to one's appearance has been looked down upon among men. The rugged, devil-may-care aesthetic is one that has dominated American male fashion. Think Marlon Brando or James Dean. Later, in the 90s, California surfer, skater, urban hiphop and working class (think grunge) fashion would take precedence. The emphasis on athleticism that began in the New England prep scene continued through the latter half of the century: guys wore sneakers, basketball shorts, baseball caps, etc. Nowadays, we are left with the legacy of the American distrust of fashion: people

It's important to realize that fashion is cyclical. The 1980s and 1990s both saw a resurgence of interest in the prep aesthetic, and more recently, men have been taking an interest in playing around with fashion. The proliferation of men's fashion websites and forums in the last five years has been insane. It is no longer considered "metrosexual" (at least among the young) to care about how you look and put effort into it. The actual style in which that care manifests, however, is not going to be the same style as has existed in the past.

What you see in Broadway audiences today is the result of a very long and sometimes deliberate process. I think enforcing a dress code is trying to move the tide backward. People will begin to dress more formally if the societal trends move American fashion that way -- not by shaming them in news articles or message boards. Fashion (the intersection of culture and clothing) is bigger than us all.

Updated On: 7/31/16 at 06:15 PM

Just posted on Theatermania. A point counterpoint on dressing for the theater....



http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/news/point-counterpoint-dressing-up-for-the-theater_81222.html?cid=homepage_news

I personally liked it better when people dressed up for the theater like it was a special event but those days are long gone. It is a casual dress country today but I still shake my head seeing guys wearing cargo shorts and a t-shirt to a Broadway show. I had not been in Sardi's in many years and went there for brunch last year. It was a culture shock seeing how casual people dressed since I remember the days when men were required to wear a jacket and tie to dine there.

2/3 of the people attending Broadway shows are tourists, a healthy percentage of whom are from other countries.The percentage of tourists is even higher at Sardi's. Most New Yorkers going to the theatre may wear ripped jeans and tshirts, but not cargo shorts.

the point of the above is to decry generalizations.

I dress for myself, not others. I consider going to the theater a special occasion and dress accordingly. I like taking pride in how I look. I'm not talking about a suit and tie, although sometimes I'm in that mood. I really don't care what you wear and would never judge you by it. I only know what makes me feel good.

"Still don't get the hate for cargo shorts haha."

I love cargo shorts, wear them all year round since I live in the south. I just would not wear them to a Broadway show. Cargo shorts are great for wearing on vacation, plenty of pockets for phone, camera wallet etc.

I notice that when I go to local productions in DC and Baltimore, everyone tends to dress up. I've always just gone in essentially business casual, so I end up feeling overdressed in New York but underdressed at home, esp. At the Kennedy Center where nearly everyone seemed to be full suit jacket and tie. Not sure if it's a culture thing or just a home vs tourism thing.

I'm for people dressing however they want. Suit and tie, jeans and a hoodie--what we consider comfortable and/or appropriate varies from person to person. What I am most certainly not in favor of is people imposing their opinions of what is or is not appropriate dress onto others. It perpetuates the stereotype that the theater is an elitist space, and that only the right kind of people are welcome.

As others have said, you can tell a lot more about a person by how they behave than by how they dress.

"Because it was the only show where I paid 500 bucks for a ticket. In comparison, I only paid 230 for Hamilton."

Wow, I paid under $100 for Hamilton (Labor day weekend 2015) and well under $200 for Hello Dolly. I am going to assume you got much better seats than me - lol. I am going to take this as you are more likely to dress up if you spend a lot of money on the ticket and it is the hot show in NYC.