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Post by stepnwolf on Apr 21, 2008 20:11:56 GMT
There seem to be as many proper modes of attire as there are LL. Some LL require white robes & white shoes, others specify formal dress, white and/or black (not at the same time). In looking at a number of pictures on the internet of BB in LL, some BB wear the apron outside the suit jacket, some inside. Some LL require that all the BB wear white gloves, still others specify only the 3 principal officers. And the headgear! Silk hats for many, one RWM in our southwest boasted a straw cowboy hat. In some jurisdictions a Bro. of 33° A&ASR may wear his/her cap as RWM of a blue L. but I've never seen a female RWM wear a silk hat and I'd rather dwell on that picture.
It would be interesting to hear whether there are any universal conventions or is it usually up to the custom of the individual L.
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Post by maat on Apr 21, 2008 22:36:28 GMT
In LDH Australia it was the custom for men to wear black dinner suit and ladies to wear long white skirts and blouses. I thought this was holding us back somewhat - long white skirts/blouses for women in these days can be off putting - a bit sectish looking, and they are impossible to buy.
After one incident when I needed to get out of the car on the way to lodge and was mistaken for a nun, and subsequently thanked for all the good things in the world (the man was on bended knee!), I decided to try and change things. That was when I found out that it is pretty well up to the individual lodge to decide what they wear. I really wanted street clothes with the apron (this is symbolically significant for me) but decided that might be a bridge too far, and proposed black and white combo similar to the men with the option of choosing to wear trousers or skirt. This is what we now wear. Apart from one Emulation Lodge in Melbourne the rest of the women in Aust still wear the long white skirts.
Maat
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Post by hollandr on Apr 21, 2008 22:56:13 GMT
>After one incident when I needed to get out of the car on the way to lodge and was mistaken for a nun,
I recall 3 elderly female brethren driving back to the Gold Coast and having a breakdown - still dressed in long white gowns. A fellow who stopped to help was amused and asked them if they were all about to get married. After that they changed clothes before departing
I think there is a lodge in Sydney where the women wear all black
And there is or used to be a lodge on the Gold Coast where the men wear all white. I think mostly they belong to bowling clubs
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Post by lauderdale on Apr 22, 2008 10:03:03 GMT
In our Lodges here in LDH UK women still tend in many cases to wear white and men of course black or dark suits. However this is not universal. In some Lodges women the choice of white or black attire.
I have to say that I do find ladies very graceful in white but can well understand the impracticality thereof compared to black.
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Post by leonardo on Apr 22, 2008 10:30:25 GMT
Things may eventually change but currently in our lodge women wear white and men black or dark suits. My feeling is they, the colours, complement each other.
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Post by corab on Apr 22, 2008 11:49:11 GMT
In my motherlodge it's white for the ladies and black for the men and I dislike it with a passion. As Bro:. Steve mentioned, some of our lodges are like that, but in quite a few others all Brn:. wear Black. I think it's about 50-50. Some of the lodges are more strict and actually prescribe the type of dress -- long sleeves, skirt not to be above the knee. Thankfully my lodge doesn't go quite that far -- there's no way I could keep my head in the heat of that Temple if I had to wear long sleeves! I haven't seen head-wear in craft lodges, but have on occasion stumbled into the storage room to find some right whacky hats of the higher & allied degrees ... enough to put you off, I tell you! Someone please tell me I don't have to wear a silly hat in Mark..?
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Post by lauderdale on Apr 22, 2008 14:59:32 GMT
You are safe Bro Cora, no silly hats in Mark. In KTs yes, (actually it's a rather nice red pillbox) and 33rd Degrees can wear a black one in A&ASR.
Pity we do not have HRAKTP in LDH as you certainly do wear a "silly hat" (Mitre) in that Order (Abbot's for ordinary members Bishop's for High Priest), I did! Now there's a picture, "Friar Tuck" or given the beard a fat Rasputin!
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Post by corab on Apr 22, 2008 18:01:45 GMT
Ah, that's what I've seen lying about then -- it comes from one of the administrative degrees. Judging by the embroidery on it it's 32', though -- the pattern matches that of the 32' collarette. Remind me to show you 3rd May! And thank goodness we don't have HRAKTP -- I ain't wearing no mitre!
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Post by Blackadder on Apr 23, 2008 15:56:44 GMT
Officers have to wear White dinner jackets,and they look cheap and trashy.The only man who can wear a white dinner jacket is Sean Connery. ;D This year the WM has given all the officers "Southern ties" a la KFC's Colonel Sanders.We all look like total idiots.My wife said to me if I told you to wear that tie etc . you would tell me where to go. last formal meeting I didn't wear Southern tie,I just couldn't .
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Post by maximus on Apr 23, 2008 16:13:45 GMT
Officers have to wear White dinner jackets,and they look cheap and trashy.The only man who can wear a white dinner jacket is Sean Connery. ;D This year the WM has given all the officers "Southern ties" a la KFC's Colonel Sanders.We all look like total idiots.My wife said to me if I told you to wear that tie etc . you would tell me where to go. last formal meeting I didn't wear Southern tie,I just couldn't . Ewww! KFC Lodge No. $1.99. WM Colonel Harlan Sanders.
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ricardo
Member
Australia
Posts: 161
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Post by ricardo on Apr 23, 2008 16:17:44 GMT
Captn Blackadder - white mess jackets can look good (on a good body frame) S&F
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Post by leonardo on Apr 23, 2008 16:36:14 GMT
Ewww! KFC Lodge No. $1.99. WM Colonel Harlan Sanders. Priceless! ;D
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Post by Tom Accuosti on Apr 23, 2008 17:34:29 GMT
Here in Connecticut, it's up to the lodge. Most lodges prefer the officers to wear black tuxedos during degrees. Our lodge requires it at all meetings. And now that I'm a wearer of the mystic purple socks, I will be required to wear a white jacket (not the cool mess jacket above).
In the States, we typically wear white only after Memorial Day (last week of May) until Labor Day (1st week of September) to signify the summer season.
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Post by Blackadder on Apr 23, 2008 17:50:37 GMT
Brother Ricardo I'm afraid our jackets are no where near as classy as that one. At regular meetings we are also supposed to wear black trousers,as in dress trousers but some brothers think this means black denims!!! oops I forgot black shoes also means black sneakers/trainers etc. But the classiest thing of all is the SW with his packet of cheap cigars in his breast pocket. "can you say Redneck?"
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Post by leonardo on Apr 23, 2008 21:05:10 GMT
Blackadder, you can't be serious. Black sneakers! ;d
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ricardo
Member
Australia
Posts: 161
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Post by ricardo on Apr 23, 2008 22:36:04 GMT
Captn Blackadder
I can remember seeing a large candidate for FC in San Diego CA wearing green tights.
And he wasn't a ballet dancer (it wasn't San Francisco)
S&F
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Post by bluebeard on Apr 23, 2008 23:31:29 GMT
Green tights???
Speaking of San Diego, in my lodge we have a choice between dark suite/pants and tie or a Barong (black for winter, blue for summer).
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Post by leonardo on Apr 24, 2008 6:58:10 GMT
Captn Blackadder I can remember seeing a large candidate for FC in San Diego CA wearing green tights. And he wasn't a ballet dancer (it wasn't San Francisco) S&F Now, if this happened in Nottingham (UK), or, better still Sherwood Forrest, I'd say fair enough. as you wouldn't be too surprised to see men in green tights around that location ;D
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Post by maat on Apr 29, 2008 0:27:30 GMT
It is my understanding that the purpose for dressing differently in a lodge is that it is seen as an aid by which to lift our consciousness to an extra-ordinary place (as in not your everyday sort of setting.) A place somewhere between this world and others. Twixt heaven and earth.
How many men, if they put of a tu-tu for a joke, will be able to resist the temptation to do a pirouette? Same thing with the cloaks, sceptres, mitres - in our play acting we are supposed to 'assume' the role - our subconscious minds are being trained to lift our 'ordinary' every day way of looking at things to a new level.
If hats and cloaks no longer do this, what else can we do? I think hats and cloaks can still do this, but there needs to be better instruction of the why's and wherefore's of the effect they are supposed to have on us. Tyling teaches us to leave the world we are familiar with outside, and to assume the roles alloted to us. Maybe we need to join an actors school.
How else can we take ourselves to 'somewhere else' and view the world from an entirely different perspective? And even if we manage to do this are we able to bring what we found back to the world when we untyle the lodge?
Maat
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