Right about this time last Sunday, I was preparing for the upcoming week, when I would be visiting one of our facilities. I was already a wee bit antsy, as DB had strikes planned for Monday, which could potentially make it a real difficulty for me to get to Sömmerda. Besides that, I was going to be meeting some colleagues for the first time, and naturally wanted to make a decent impression. The real issue, though, was the fact that my last business trip was in January, and my wardrobe is much better suited for the colder months. I just do not have that much "business casual" stuff that is suited for summer, and as always, I tend to feel a step or two behind the fashion times.
On the Sunday morning as I was packing my suitcase, I started with the easy stuff: enough socks and boxers for a five day trip. My rule is always "days away plus two," which is really easy to do with undergarments. Because I would only be away from Monday to Friday, I figured on 2 pairs of jeans: one to wear and one in the suitcase. Shirts, however, was looking like a problem. The weather forecast indicated coolish temperatures with a bit of rain. I looked at the polo shirts I had available, all three of them (that are still presentable), selected undershirts (which, in my world, are t-shirts with the sleeves cut off), and realized I still had two days to plan for. I figured that a long sleeve button down was not needed, and part of this decision was already made for me, as ironing would be involved, and I just did not feel like putting that much effort into things.
I was quickly losing interest in the exercise, but knew I had to get it done. Finally I decided on a henley and a long sleeve heavy t-shirt. Not optimal, but doable, on the grounds that I was not going to be meeting with customers, but rather colleagues within the repair facility.
Packing completed, I quickly went through the rest of my to-do list. I needed ciggy and cash (not necessarily in that order), and had plans to meet up at the pub for the late afternoon football match. As I walked down the street towards my bank, I ran into some friends, a couple who were soon to be headed away on their summer holiday. We chatted briefly, and the man complained about trying to pack for their trip, noting that some of his clothes no longer fit, heavily due to the events of the past 18 months, where people were doing less clothes shopping and to some extent being less active than other times, based on lock-down restrictions and whatnot.
I kind of chuckled, then told the man that I was going through a similar problem. Some of my clothes probably do not fit as well as they once did, and certainly some new articles of clothing are probably needed. However, because I have not done a lot of travel this year, I am not altogether clear what I should be wearing.
This may sound like a very ridiculous question, but let me explain.
In service logistics facilities, including our repair sites, most of the employees that work on the repair lines, either as technicians or material handles, tend to wear jeans and some sort of ESD protective clothing. One of the big trends these days is for the ESD apparel to be more trendy. There are polos and both long and short sleeve t-shirts offered to the employees, all with company logo and ESD protection. Effectively the employees all look like they are wearing a uniform.
The program and operations managers tend to wear the business casual stuff, just like I have done for most of my career. Now, in this slightly different role, I am not sure if I can continue to get away with wearing ops type clothing, or if I need to spruce up a bit to wear more something more suitable to business development.
The question is, what exactly should a business development guy be wearing? Generally, a suit is almost too formal for this kind of business, and one of the rules of thumb is to sort of mirror what your customers might wear. So, I have been thinking about these things and decided to do additional research during the week in Sömmerda as I met with some other colleagues in my department. I was glad that I had not invested too much time or money in buying new work clothes at the beginning of the year, but knew that now is probably the right time.
There were some tricky bits during the train ride on Monday, but I got to my destination without too much delay. I greeted some of the colleagues I had first met in January, then met some new colleagues, all the while kind of making mental notes as to what people were wearing.
One of the guys that I was meeting personally for the first time is at my same level of management, which basically means we were dressing similarly. When we arrived at the hotel, he pulled out a hanging bag, and I immediately thought, "oh now, this guy is going to wear suit tomorrow."
It turned out that it was just a shirt, and his routine was to simply bring the stuff on hangers if he were travelling by car. No need to pack and fold if you do not need to.
One of the German colleagues wore a waistcoat over a white shirt. He looked smart, but a little too trendy for my tastes, especially since he completed the outfit with jeans and white tennis shoes. I have seen a few other people dressing similarly (though mostly without the sneakers), but rather than a vest, I would prefer wearing a blazer, if required. In fact, the typical business casual German fashion is a blazer with a jeans and a shirt. I can do that without any problem, but in summer, it tends to be way too warm for that, despite the fact that German summer temperatures are nowhere near like they might be in southern Europe.
My buddy with the hanging bag tended to wear print shirts for the week, and this something I am also not a huge fan of. I prefer solid colors, and as we know, these solid colors tend to be extremely dark: black or gray.
All things considered, my polos did just fine for the week, and as Thursday and Friday approached, I quietly wore my henley without too much fuss. I realized that I had not made too much progress on deciding on what I needed to extend my wardrobe, but told myself to pay attention on the train ride home to see what other businessmen were wearing.
I got additional opportunities to see how others are dressing because the train that I was booked on had a technical failure. The replacement train was simply another train that had to route through our station and pick up the additional passengers. Thus, the train was quite full for the two hour return trip to Frankfurt.
That was already a bit stressful, because as much as I like train travel, I do not always enjoy the cattle car experience, and Friday afternoon was leaning in that direction.
The week was busy and very productive, so I sat in my seat, closed my eyes (I had already peeped at the other businessmen and their attire), and thought about clothes.
I remembered my years in high school and college, when I wore Stan Smiths a whole lot. I loved that shoe, not only for tennis, but simply because it was a nice basic all rounder. I should point out that because of it's simplicity, it was an exceptional shoe to use when kicking a hacky sack. I continued to wear Stans until the mid 90s, when I finally made the change to Sambas, which has been my casual shoe of choice for over 25 years.
A few years ago, I was slightly surprised to see Stans (and equivalents) showing up more and more often on peoples feet. I understand that fashion goes in cycles, but the difference this time was that the shoes were being used more formally. A prime example comes from the morning television show that I watched this past week while getting ready for work. The moderator wore a slim fitting suit, certainly trendy, but wore Stan Smiths on his feet. The look works, but is so trendy, that it puts me off. I do not think I could ever dress like that, but I could easily see my nephew sporting that look. This is not a negative comment towards my nephew, but just the acknowledgement that people have their styles and looks.
When I was coming to the end of my time wearing Stans, I still wore khakis semi-regularly, and actually still wore some shirts that maybe didn't have prints, but they might have had more color, and possibly some stripes. Some of this was because I was still wearing clothes from high school, and there was a time when you had to wear khaki pants because your mom made you.
One of the very last times that I wore a more colorful shirt was one warm summer evening in 1994. It was a Friday afternoon, and Pablo came by to pick me up so that we could go to my sister's wedding rehearsal. Both of us were involved in the wedding, Pablo called into action due to the need for Spanish translators as well as being a personal friend not only to me, but also my sister and the rest of my family.
My mother specifically stated that I was NOT to attend the wedding rehearsal wearing jeans or overly dark clothing, which was my tendency, so I pulled out a shirt, one that I briefly quite liked, that had vertical stripes in a very soft blue and pastel red. If someone were to see me wearing that today, they would certainly raise an eyebrow, since they are not used to seeing me in something like that. But, that Friday evening it was the best option. That and my khaki pants. Pablo picked me up at my place, handed me a beer from the console in his car, and we enjoyed a happy hour beer as we headed downtown. Yes, consumption in an automobile was kind of frowned upon, if not illegal, but sometimes you just did it anyway.
We should have expected traffic, but left it late (casual as we tended to be), and found ourselves arriving to the rehearsal a good 20 minutes after it had started. No mobiles back then, so no way to tell everyone (particularly mom, who was none too pleased) that we would be delayed.
The beer tasted good, we had a few laughs, parked, and strolled into the church sanctuary, and thank goodness Pablo turned on the charm and had everyone chuckling within seconds, even though my grandfather (who performed the ceremony) was a bit irritated by the interruption.
Stateside culture calls for wedding rehearsals to be followed by a rehearsal dinner, an opportunity hosted by (usually) the groom's family with special guests and family members the night before the wedding. Pablo played a key role in this because the groom's parents did not speak any English, and the bride's parents could not speak any Spanish. Hence the need for bilingual folks to be strategically placed in the restaurant to help keep the festivities flowing, and to help make everyone feel more comfortable. You have to appreciate that besides Pablo and a couple of others, the only person who was bilingual was my sister, the bride. She, of course, was preoccupied with the wedding stuff, and needed less pressure on having to do ALL the translating.
I no longer remember how many people were at the rehearsal dinner, but we had reserved one of the banquet rooms at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Once all the guests had arrived, my father stood up to make some introductions, welcome everyone, and give a toast or two. He, himself, was wearing a print shirt, some navy blue thing with kind of a paisley print. This was kind of style in the early 90s, especially for men of his age when they attempted to do the semi-casual look.
Truth be told, I had a couple of other shirts very similar to that (thanks J-Crew, those were good times), but was no longer really wearing them; clearly my fashion tastes were already well on their way to jeans, boots, and solid black, grey, or white shirts.
The beers and margaritas were flowing well that evening, and it was a nice event. As I was interested in enjoying myself as much as possible while still honoring all my wedding duties that are required of the little brother of the bride, I had whispered to Chris that perhaps he should come by the restaurant for a couple of late beers. He sauntered in at the appropriate moment when the gathering was starting to break up, and after a beer and a tequila shot or two, Pablo, Chris, and I decided the night indeed was still young, and it was time to venture downtown.
In those days we were frequently on Elm Street, seeing shows with great frequency. Two doors down from Trees, one of our favorite venues, there was a nice little bar called the Green Room, which had a roof top terrace that was brilliant. So, that Friday evening, the three of us headed upstairs, found a table, and relaxed during the lively evening. August in Texas is known for being hot as shit, and that is not good. But, every once in awhile, the evenings are not so humid, and not so damn hot. This particularly evening offered a pleasant breeze, good company, nice beers, and all of it made me forget that I was wearing a goofy colored shirt.
What I do remember about attire from that evening, is that both my friends were wearing their usual styles. We have all been friends for over 30 years, and with the exception of my migration along the color spectrum to darker colors, none of us have really changed styles. Like anyone, we have discussed it maybe once or twice through the years, but always more in passing. We are simply WYSIWYG kind of people. We know are styles, are comfortable in those styles, and simply get on with it.
It was a nice memory to reflect on as I got back to Frankfurt Friday afternoon. I returned home, threw all my dirty laundry into the washing machine, noticing that when all you wear is darks, there is no hassle with sorting.
As the workweek came to a satisfying close, I figured that in the coming weeks I may indeed need to venture out to a store or two to update my wardrobe, Bryan style. There is still a bit of uncertainty on whether my style will mesh well with the workplace, but I will focus on staying as what you see is what you get. After all, one of my target customers is a start up, and they all recently changed their profile photos on business networking sites from pictures of them in suits to pictures of them in hoodies. True, it is a start up, and maybe that is the hip thing. So dealing with an account guy who wear steelies and jeans should not be a real big deal for them.
I celebrated the start of the weekend with a nice trip to the pub, where I caught up with a few friends, and even met some new people, including a woman wearing a summer dress and Stan Smiths (which I found to be a nice look). Conversation topics in the pub are always spontaneous and enjoyable, but on the particular evening, taking things as they come and individual styles were discussed. This served as an excellent reminder that I just need to keep on dressing like I want to dress. The rest of it will sort itself out all in good time.
Yep, Friday turned out to be a very late night indeed, and perhaps two or three beers too many. This is why Saturday I spent a lot of time on the couch, not worrying about my team getting ripped apart by their opponents, and just kept trying to get through the hangover.
But it was worth it.
As the last little point for today's post, it once again involves Pablo and Chris. One of our haunts from the neighborhood, an Irish Pub (gee, really?) apparently closed it's doors with a hint of abruptness. It arrived 20 years ago just when we needed a new place to go to in Dallas, and we all have fond memories from there. Both guys informed me via text of the news almost at the exact same moment.
It just serves as another reminder that as friends, we are never been concerned with what we are wearing on our bodies, but instead where we can hang out and enjoy pints and good chats.
see you out there
Bryan
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