Sharp dressed man

I am a product of the ’80s.

American rock band ZZ Top’s release of the song Sharp Dressed Man in 1983 left a strong impression on me. They put out an accompanying video that has been coming back to me in recent days. In the video, a parking valet gets transformed into a sought-after star with the help of the band and a trio of women.

By the end of the video, he ends up “getting the girl” and the band gives him the keys to the Eliminator car. The video comes back to me because I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a sharp dressed man? Like the video, I used to think it was a slick suit and a power tie.

I’m not sure anymore.

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Crazily enough, I think to be called a sharp dressed man now means comfort over pizzazz.

—I was in the hospital with my wife earlier this year. I couldn’t help but notice how many health care professionals wore Crocs. For the uninitiated, Crocs are the brand of shoe that is known for being lightweight and comfortable. I know Crocs get a bad rap, but if I saw one pair of them, I saw 300 of them. They were everywhere in the hospital, from the waiting room to the medical offices to the cafeteria. Now they look horrible to me. If I worked in a hospital, I suspect that I would lean more toward a good pair of running shoes. However, it did open my eyes. If nothing else, I would love how easy they go on and off.

I may be willing to kick Crocs to the curb. But, a loose-fitting pair of scrubs tops my sharp dressed man list. They looked as comfortable as can be. Chemistry and Science were never my thing in high school and college. With a good pair scrubs, though, I might be able to save a life or two. Hell, I might be able to save the world. Who’s with me?

—Sweat pants. Need I say more.

—A nice button down dress shirt and beat-up khaki shorts. These are my perfect Zoom, Skype, MicroSoft Teams, Google Meetings, GoToMeeting, Slack, Webex Meetings go-to clothes. I feel like I’m a man of mystery when I wear this outfit. It’s all professional on top, casual on the bottom. What you can’t see doesn’t need your attention!

Image by Pexels.

—I track my wardrobe now by the pandemic. Before the pandemic, I had a small collection of t-shirts. Since the pandemic, my number of t-shirts has exploded. I have my dressy ones, my football Saturday ones, my sweaty-dad-doing-dad-things-like-mowing-the-yards ones, and even my going to bed ones. I’ve come to the conclusion that you can never have too many of the perfect fitting t-shirts. The more, the merrier.

—A perfect pair of jeans that always fit right.

Where on my list is good suit? A black tie outfit? Nope. I wore suits — blue ones, black ones and every other color in between — for 25 years. You can’t make me wear them anymore! Heck, I had to tie a Windsor Knot recently and I completely forgot how to do it. I had to Google it, because it had been so long.

I think my days of being a sharp dressed man are over!

ZZ Top — Sharp Dressed Man