No glamour at the Met

I love that you are talking about fashion. Why is no one commenting on this? Anyway I agree, musicians can move beyond the tuxes. There is a way to be dressy without looking like you are about to get married.

Hi Greg

I found your blog from my girlfriend who is a classical pianist (she's actually the commentor above). I'm a fashion designer and complete newbie to classical music and I have to agree with this post. My girlfriend is spearheading a project that is essentially changing how people view classical music by changing the way they dress and perform.

I actually just wrote a blog about it that I think you might find interesting, especially since I'm not of the classical music world.

http://therapysessions.livejournal.com/229577.html

let me know what you think.

Peter, thanks for commenting, and I love your blog post. As you might have guessed! I especially love the photo, which proves your point. Dramatically. Where'd you get it? What orchestra is that? People in the outside world would never guess that these people are performing for the public.

Wow, Greg, interesting that you should have suddenly become fashion-conscious...I suppose the problem of what to wear to the Met, or what the orchestra should wear, is part of the larger question of the role of "classical" music in contemporary society. But - that Runway show? That's hot??? Most of the time (and I haven't watched it very often) the outfits they devise seem pretty weird - unrelated to anybody's real life. For better or worse, most of us dress for comfort and informality and a kind of democratic sameness: class distinctions, as indicated by clothing, are much more subtle than ever before. Again, this is SO not the cultural context into which, say, La traviata was born.

We can't go back to hoopskirts and frock coats, or even Fred Astaire's white tie and tails. Is La traviata really comprehensible in a bluejeans - or at least ready-to-wear - world?

I'm glad you came up with an alternative to the old-fashioned suit or tuxedo, and particularly glad that you described it. (I'd like to know about the shoes, though.) One of these days I'm going to work up my own new take on a dress-up outfit, and Kenneth Cole sounds like a good place to start.

As you probably know (and may have mentioned in a post I haven't gotten to yet), Alex Ross's recent New Yorker article on modern-day seriousness in the concert hall observed, "The overarching problem of classical music is the tuxedo." (The full article is at http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2008/09/08/080908crmu_music_ross?currentPage=1)