The Demise of sartorial splendor

In January 1953 Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower rode together in stony silence to Ike's inaugural as they were not on friendly terms. Truman was wearing a top hat and Ike was sporting a homburg. A brief eight years later John F. Kennedy put a dagger in the hat business by going hatless. It was a good thing that Truman was a haberdasher BEFORE he got into politics, for had he reversed his careers he would have lost his "shirt".
Now fifty years later comes President Ahmadinejad of Iran to the United Nations meeting in an open neck shirt sans necktie. The trend has caught on in all walks of life so that now the cravat is a thing of the past. We survived the faddish Nehru jacket and the Caribbean Guayabera  is seasonal and comfortable. But here I sit with a half dozen hats - felt and straw - on the shelf and a rack full of neckties from Christmases past. And all because a couple of Presidents defied protocol and precedent. My grandmother's home in the Kensington section of Philadelphia was several blocks from the principal factory of John B. Stetson of hat fame - a whole factory dedicated to manufacturing hats. And you ask where have all the jobs gone?
tjs
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