A Uniform That’s Not

The reason women don’t play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public. ~Phyllis Diller, American actress and comedian

You know, Phyllis was onto something.

Can you imagine spending precious time shopping for something to wear, or money buying it, and then walking into a roomful of people wearing the exact same thing??

I can’t.

Despite the relative sameness of fashion styles, the scarcity of available color options, and the propensity of department stores to carry basically the same things, we all strive to be individuals.

Nobody wants to look like they haven’t bought anything new in a decade.

Nobody wants to show up in something so outrageous that friends and strangers will snicker, either.

We want to fit in. And stand out.

Simultaneously.

One exception might be a group of performing musicians.

Our symphonic band, comprised of community members and university musicians, is required to wear black head to toe for performances.

Doesn’t matter if black isn’t your color. Or you don’t own anything that’s all black.

If you’re performing, you’re expected to comply with the dress code.

This means black slacks, skirts, shirts, sweaters, ties, jackets, socks.

So we don’t detract from the music we’re playing.

And nobody stands out.

Most years, finding basic black isn’t hard at all.

Yet some always try to push the envelope.

To show up in spaghetti straps or those “cold-shoulder” tops. Or a short skirt with bare legs hanging out (instead of black hose). Or sporting some brightly-colored, flowery doo-dad in their hair.

I wonder if our director has a supply of black “costumes” for those last-minute rebels, or if he just shoos them away in disgust.

It’s not that hard, really.

Black is black.

You might think it boring to be dressed completely in black, but I can assure you of one thing: everybody looks so classy in head-to-toe black!

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Symphonic Band flute section — minus our identifying heads — and not a single duplicate outfit to be seen!