Our Tastes in Dress

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 14

Our Tastes in Dress

By

Whim Wham

“The spotlight was on a conservatively-dressed Mr Rob Hawke — grey suit, white shirt, well groomed ... the sort of man anyone would welcome to their living room.” — News.

Sir, if You wish to be my Guest Please come Conservatively Dressed. Clothes make the Man, the Way he grooms. Oztralia’s gracious Living-rooms Won’t welcome You in Jeans and Jandals, Track-suit, or Kaftan and Rope Sandals. Neither will I — a nicely pressed Grey Suit, a clean White Shirt will do, Better be clean-shaven too; Your beard’s a beauty, as Beards go, But that’s not Everywhere, You know. Sir, I’m surprised to hear Them talk Nonsense like this about Bob Hawke, Having Met the Man — I won’t say Where, Or When, or How, that’s my Affair - Some years ago, as You may guess, Somewhere in Europe, not in Oz, I noticed Then (could I do Less?) How Conservatively Dressed he was! So were We All, Yes, All the Rest, All, All Conservatively Dressed, A well-groomed Bunch, with nothing shaggy Or dishevelled, wild, or baggy. Haven’t we seen those Pictures of Reagan and Bush — and Andropov, Begin, and Botha - are They not Conservatively Dressed, the Lot? .