Clothes make the man, as the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller knew more than 150 years ago. He made a nice story out of this idea in which a tailor is mistaken for a count because he dresses very well regardless of his poverty. Which, despite some capers, ultimately leads to his social advancement.
The short form of the novella is, however, too small if one wants to devote himself to the subject of “clothing on vacation” with due seriousness. This requires a multi-volume cultural history. Even switching from long to short trousers can shake the little sense of style that many men have. The reasons for this require a careful explanation. Too much for a novella, especially too much for a newspaper column.
Just this much: If you meet vacationing men in the pubs of Palma, the kafenions of Crete or the trattorias of Taormina, you would not assume that they are doing their work as tax officials or tilers anyway. Nevertheless, they wear shirts that scream at you: I’m neither in the office nor on the construction site! Only the sea is blue here, maybe the tourist after too much sangria, retsina or Nero d’Avola is also there. But by no means is it the outerwear. There is definitely no space in the suitcase for office shirts or overalls, the holiday wardrobe clearly signals: free time!
The same is done by men’s sandals, which replace Goodyear welted Budapest shoes or safety shoes with steel toecaps that are equally attractive in the most beautiful weeks of the year. In terms of fashion, they are dubious, especially in combination with tennis socks. Obviously, humans are only able to apply one layer. If this is necessarily sunscreen, there is no room for civilizing varnish.
The fact that so far only men have been mentioned in connection with fashionable lapses and not women is due solely to politeness. A lot could also be written about bikinis, beach hats and wrap skirts, not always to the benefit of the wearer. At the end of the day, however, this story is about a man who was seized by sheer desperation during his vacation and who did not know what to do other than to take his wife as a role model.
Everything would have gone well if he had applied the necessary discipline. The man wanted to travel from the Indonesian capital Jakarta to the island of Ternate, for which he needed a negative corona test. He didn’t have one, his wife did. So he went on the journey fully veiled in the garb of his wife, including her test. He was blown because he changed his clothes too early. This story also proves that multicolored shirts and sandals are never a good choice.