George Will: Blue jeans don't go well with my bow ties

George Will, bless his heart, is probably planning a followup essay calling for the return of fedoras for men. I'm in my mid 40s, and I am not at all ashamed to wear my blue jeans whenever the occasion allows. They're the most comfortable pants I own.

WaPo, April 16:

On any American street, or in any airport or mall, you see the same sad tableau: A 10-year-old boy is walking with his father, whose development was evidently arrested when he was that age, judging by his clothes. Father and son are dressed identically -- running shoes, T-shirts. And jeans, always jeans. If mother is there, she, too, is draped in denim.

Writer Daniel Akst has noticed and has had a constructive conniption. He should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has earned it by identifying an obnoxious misuse of freedom. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he has denounced denim, summoning Americans to soul-searching and repentance about the plague of that ubiquitous fabric, which is symptomatic of deep disorders in the national psyche.

What standard does he recommend, nay, insist, we adopt?

This is not complicated. For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.

I guess I can rest easy regarding the fedoras. Astaire favored top hats and straw hats.