Playing: ‘Dress up’

I dress for comfort, not to impress” thus said President Rodrigo Duterte who presumably was responding to comments about his lack of fashion sense or shoddy dressing during the 50th ASEAN Summit.

In terms of “In your face” repartees, the President certainly has a pocket full of one-liners to shut up the critics. But in terms of consideration and consequences, the appropriate response would have been: If you have a good tailor, I’d like to meet him.

Not everyone is a critic and at some point in our life we all have heard comments or criticisms about how we look, how much we weigh, or about having poor taste in clothes. In the case of President Duterte, I don’t think Filipinos expect him to look like a model or fashionista, but they do want him to look good as in we want our “Tatay” to be “Guapo” and dressed as well as his foreign counterparts. I for one wanted him to be in a shirt and suit that were the right size and not strangling him because the collar size was two sizes small. All suits and clothes follow standard size but humans don’t. So in the end, we all need someone to help us figure out right sizes and what cut and style fits or compliments our body and skin tone. I won’t fit in Japanese or Italian suits but I do well in German or American suits because I am on the big size.

Often it is the people who care, or those who love us, who tell us such things; first out of concern, second because we have a lot of potential to look better, third because they love us and in general because we represent something or someone whether it’s the family or the country.

It takes a lot of humility and understanding to accept, agree or embrace such comments and it does not get any easier as we climb the ladder of power and success, because we tend to think that we must be doing things right in order to succeed. Unfortunately, power, success and being “Fashionable” or well-dressed are not twins or triplets at birth. They are unique to themselves.

Age however can be one’s saving grace when we become mature enough and comfortable in our own skin to the point that we welcome comments and criticisms as useful inputs to make us look better. I’ve noticed that as people get older they become more relaxed and open to trying out new things in terms of attire and fashion style. Of course there are exceptions but mostly they are those who never had a need to or don’t have any idea or appreciation of the benefits of looking good and dressing up well.

I can appreciate that President Duterte would find comments about his fashion or looks as shallow and ought to be dismissed. But I think he would win the argument by actually picking up the comments and coming out as one of the best-dressed people in government. That would be a blast! As supportive as anyone might want to be, the President’s statement about “dressing for comfort and not to impress” should be stricken down because it is a bad precedent or reason that will eventually be used by some government employee or official who does not want to wear a uniform or to dress appropriately in office.

Every time I teach at the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) in Tagaytay City, the staff, security and waiters already have an idea if I will be arriving soon. No, there are no sirens or advance parties or security announcing my arrival. They know just by the way the students dress up.

It has become some sort of ritual that whenever I teach the Communications Module for the Public Management Development Program or PMDP, every incoming batch of about 40 students get word that they are expected to dress for business. If you failed to get the memo which comes in the form of whispers, hints and threats from upper class members, well, your best option is to run to the two malls or the various ukay-ukays and get your self some business attire or suffer the evil eye and an unforgettable fashion critique.

Most of my friends find this strange knowing I was not much for dressing up in my younger days and even now, “Business attire” could also be shorts, T-shirt and garden tools in my pocket or a tool box on the side. So why play: Dress up? On my very first day to lecture at DAP Tagaytay, I arrive ahead of everyone at the cafeteria for an early breakfast and also to scope my students in their unguarded moment. Every one of course was dressed casual if not a bit too informal. But what got my goat that morning was one student who came to the cafeteria in slippers, pajama pants and a T-shirt strutting in front of the breakfast table as if he was in his own kitchen.

I don’t know what others felt, but I was certainly shocked because “This” was the DAP! Such an institution deserves respect along with the faculty members, government professionals and staff that have invested many years as well as skills to build up its reputation and its graduates. No I did not hate the student for being a slob at breakfast but I did not hold back my opinion to make him realize and understand that our conduct as well as our attire speaks volumes of our attitude and respect for people and institutions.

Fourteen batches have come and gone, hundreds of mid-level government executives have gone through the torture chamber we call “make over” and they have all discovered how good they look which in turn is appreciated or admired by people they do business with them. I hope and pray that President Duterte chooses to turn things around and Discover  that Dressing Up can be fun and looking great makes him “The Man.”

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