On Sat, 25 Feb 2006, JAMES OGILVIE wrote: > It's the Medieval Conference at Kalamazoo that gives me the most > problems. Every other place I sell books, I'm wearing medieval or > Renaissance SCA clothes, but there modern clothing is all I've ever > seen. Some of the participants (professors who already have tenure?) > slum it in jeans and tee shirts but since there is a lot of > professional networking going on, most dress better than that.
In my experience, most of the people in jeans and tee shirts are (a) graduate students, (b) spouses, (c) hobbyists/independents such as SCA members, (d) vendors, and (e) local residents (who, I believe, are allowed free attendance to the conference). Not to say that all of these people wear jeans and t-shirts -- not at all -- but that if you see that look, it's almost certainly on one of these. The overwhelming majority of faculty members wear "nice casual." For the women, that's casual dresses, or slacks or skirts with blouses/sweaters. A sizable number of the men wear ties, often with casual jackets; suits are rarer. People who are presenting papers often dress up more on their presentation day. I have always made it a point to dress on the nicer end because, as an independent scholar, I needed to send signals that would suggest "I'm here on business" rather than "I'm just here for fun" -- and my hair is distinctly nonprofessional and nonconservative, so I have to balance it! I wear casual dresses with cardigans, skirts and sweaters or shells with blazers, and often a suit when I present papers or preside over sessions. Because I work at home, conference wear is the closest thing I have to office clothes. I try to sew a new outfit or two each year so I'm not always showing up in the same clothes every time, but I confess there are certain packable outfits that end up in my Kalamazoo suitcase year after year. This year I have a new dress half-finished and a vest-and-skirt outfit partly cut out. We'll see if either of them get done before the Congress -- I have a lot of other things to do in the next two months. About that vest-and-skirt outfit: I am tempted to cut the skirt as culottes, so I can use a line I heard by Shelly Nordtorp-Madson years ago. She stood up in front of a room full of mixed British and American costume scholars and said "Since I'm going to be addressing the issue of terminology, I was tempted to dress for this paper in knickers and a vest." --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
