Keeping track of changes in the world of fashion

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

You wouldn’t often find yourself in the same camp as Michael Flatley – but it’s hard to find fault with his mystification as to why people, who are clearly not in the midst of exercise, would go out of their houses wearing tracksuits.

Unfortunately for the Lord of the Dance, he drives a horse and four through his argument by then revealing that his Friday night ritual for dinner in the formal dining room of his Cork mansion involved wearing a suit and tie….or a tuxedo.

And like a bad movie from the fifties, Flats takes his time to prepare the perfect martini and listen to some Frank Sinatra while he waits for his wife, Niamh, to sweep down the stairs in something that presumably doesn’t have Juicy written in large letters on the ass of her tracksuit bottoms.

Flatley’s sartorial regime wouldn’t even permit him to wear sweat pants in the comfort of his own home, which might be taking it a step too far given that some men lounge about in their underpants and string vest.

But he’s definitely got a point about wearing tracksuits on the streets; unless you are an athlete in training, you should have more self-worth than to wander about in an outfit that is one small step from pyjamas.

Obviously if you’re a teenager, the mere fact that parental protocol would rule this outfit out would be good enough reason to wear nothing else – and in fairness, teens do get away with it.

Tracky bottoms – either traditional shiny nylon or comfortable cotton – are the trousers of choice for the younger members of our household and you’ll really only get them into jeans for very special occasions.

One of the lads is spending a few days stocking the bars at the Galway Races and he had to get black trousers and what were described to him as black dress shoes for the occasion.

These are two items of clothing that we can confidently predict he will never wear again – unless the cheap shoes become welded to his swollen feet and have to be surgically removed at the end of the racing festival.

But rest assured, as soon as the last glass is collected in Ballybrit, it will be back into the sweat pants and football tops until the school uniform is de-mothballed for the beginning of September.

So teenagers, given that they might actually be on their way to a sporting event, can get away with wearing tracksuits on the street – less so, adults whose playing days, if they ever existed, are now long behind them.

Certainly if, like me, you take a size that’s the wrong side of medium, wearing sweat pants might lead people to believe that you couldn’t find anything to fit you that didn’t have an elasticated waist.

And matching it with a replica top from your favourite football team is only piling ridicule on top of ridiculous.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.