Web Letters: Have Pantsuit, Will Travel

I thoroughly enjoyed "Have Pantsuit Will Travel!"

I was born one year after the author, so went through the '70s wave of feminism. My take on style is very different, but then my life has taken a different path!

I work in a medical field and for me, it's professionally acceptable to come to work in sneakers and khakis and cotton tops--no jeans or sweats or logo T-shirts, and no flip flops. I have three degrees, but I work with children, so may have to put up swings, get down on the floor and play with trains or go to meetings with people who don't pay much attention to what I'm wearing.

If I go to my professional conference (American Speech and Hearing Association), I will wear similar clothing--maybe a cotton dress. Once there (always a city, of course), I prefer to stay in a hostel, perhaps, and to take mass transit, as when I travel for pleasure. As Rick Steves the travel guru says, I "like to travel close to the ground."

I am a also a blogger. I attended both YearlyKos conventions (Las Vegas, Chicago) and Netroots nation (Austin) and the last two DNC conventions (Boston and Denver). I brought a David Bowie T-shirt, a green one with a peace sign, bought the rest on the street from vendors, and I had a pair of cutoffs and a pear of jeans (my best-fitting ones.) For the feet: flipflops (expensive leather ones in a tea green) and canvas slip-ons.

I loved the 16th Street Mall bus and the light rail and the opportunity to get alot of walking in, since I wouldn't be able to pump iron as usual (that's for the upper arm problem.) I also took advantage of the free bicycles. It takes a lot to get me to use a cab or shuttle because I enjoy the challenge of finding a cheaper way where I can do more people-watching.

I had Big Tent credentials but also managed to get into the Pepsi Center (convention) and Invesco Center (Obama's speech) without much difficulty.

So it goes. I'm home now, going to register voters at Bumbershoot Festival here. I'm wearing the David Bowie T-shirt again and the same cutoffs because they're still pretty clean and I'm barefoot, but I will probably change into this Obama gear with rhinestones that I bought in Denver before I head down to the Space Needle.

DiAnne Grieser

Seattle, WA

Ah, yes, Dress for Success. John Rosemond. The man who hated the pantsuit because--get this--it emphasized women's legs too much. The man who made it impossible for me to wear sensible clothes to an interview for the first decade of my working life.

I hate skirts. Hate, hate, hate them. With a passion. This is because to wear skirts, you must wear pantyhose no matter how hot it is, because if you don't, you get rashes from your skin sticking together. But the average lifespan of a pair of pantyhose is about two hours. On my legs, make that two minutes. Plus, unless you're tall and thin, skirts and dresses make you look chopped and chunky. The only way this doesn't happen is if you get them really short or really long--in other words, in the lengths that are considered inappropriate for office wear.

I am so glad to see the pantsuit being accepted as appropriate power wear. If I could control John Rosemond's fate in the afterlife, I'd force him to dress as he would have a senior-level female executive dress circa 1985, and make sure his nylons always sprouted ladder runs five minutes into an important meeting.

Tamara Baker

St. Paul, MN