Underdressed

Back when I was first getting into Ferraris, I accompanied an owner to the '89 FCA meet in Atlanta. We were walking the paddock at Road Atlanta when he first mentioned Preston Henn to me. He went on to describe all the Ferraris he had and that he dressed like a complete hillbilly. I learned from then on never to judge a person on their looks.

 

Some of you guys have SEEN me when I'm coming back from the ranch. I wouldn't win any awards from GQ magazine. When I drive between my house in the city and the ranch I drive a Jeep which gets washed by driving through one of the cattle ponds or an F250 which usually has a few bales of hay or bags of trash in the bed! When I'm in the city I try to dress a little better. Sometimes if I'm coming back to town in the evening I'll meet the Mrs. at Flemings or Del Friscos. I valet park. You should see the look on the valet's face when this mud covered vehicle pulls up and a guy in a suit gets out. <laughing>

 

(laughing)

 

Clearly she doesn't know much about peddling bikes because there is no way you could with your crocks on!


I love getting out of my Ferrari wearing an athletic shirt, shorts...and a Patel Philippe Nautilus Annual Calender in SS (5726/1a)....

 

Patel Philippe ? Rob , you should have bought a Patek Philippe. Close but , no cigar.

 

He's from India.

 

Lol!
Damned autocorrect...

 

There was a sure in central MA called Spags. It was an amazing place owned by a guy who looked like he didn't have two nickels to rub together. Wore khakis top and bottoms and a big cowboy hat every day of the week, even on Sunday to church. Larger than life. He lived simply but gave big! There are more story's about Spag helping and giving than I can count. His only splurge were his two German Shepard and his Cadillac. I think he got a new one every year.
Well, he went to the dealership that he had always purchased from and for one reason or another, he wasn't greeted and helped. Most say it was because he looked like he couldn't afford a car and he wasn't recognized. He ended up driving a few towns away to the next closest dealership to make his purchase.
He had it delivered just outside of the enterence to the first dealership and took delivery there. I'm sure there is more to the story but that was the basis of it.
I have a friend that owns a bunch of dealerships. He says the seasoned salespeople always go for the people who are dressed down. They are the ones that buy.......

 

"I recall a Wall St. Journal front-page feature on Spag's. The story noted that the owner wanted to reward his managers with a bonus of giving each a new Cadillac. When he went to one dealer, asking to buy about 12 Cadillacs, he was basically laughed out of the dealership," Goslewski wrote on Facebook. "When he then bought the Cadillacs at another dealer, he then made it a point to parade those new Cadillacs in front of the dealer who refused to sell him the cars."

 

I stopped caring about what anyone thinks when I was about 10. I figured out early on that people will judge you anyway. I dress comfortably and drive what makes me smile. Unless someone is paying my bills, I could care what they think.

 

+1 I still think the definitive response to this situation comes from John Steinbeck in Travels With Charley. Steinbeck was a notorious horder and DIYer. One time in the 1950s he was painting his house and hired an itinerant worker to help him. At some point he realized he needed more paint and gave the man $20 (IIRC) and told him to go get paint. The man began getting cleaned up and Steinbeck said why don't you just go? The worker responded something to the effect of, " You must really be rich if you can go out looking like that."
I know, "should matter" and "do matter" are not the same, but IMHO, the only opinions that should matter are your spouse's, your kids, your true friends, and yourself. I call it the 2AM test. If it's 2am and you can't sleep, you've screwed up. If you're asleep, then you're right with the world.

 

I have always thought the opposite. In my area the wealthy people drive pickups and volvo's, MB and BMW's are people with payments in most cases. I have a vacation house in Mass in a gated community and everyone dresses like a bumb, drives pickups, volvo's and Prius. I have 3 Ferrari's and I'm in the bottom 10%. I know 2 guys that are worth more then 500m and they drive pickups.

Great saying in Texas "Big hat No cattle".

In the end of the day .... who cares.

 

While in college I worked part-time in a watch store that sold Rolex. A guy walks in one day soon after I started there wearing sneakers, denim cut-off shorts, a t-shirt and one of those caps made from patches of various colors of suede stitched together. Nobody would wait on him so I did. Sold my first Rolex. Guy actually wasn't wealthy - but he certainly wasn't a bum either - and he'd always wanted a Rolex watch.
I think of this story every time I go to a store and get ignored because my haircut is wrong or I haven't shaved in 4 days.

 

Funny stories here, but this has happened to me not once but twice. Most of our neighbors get their lawns done by someone else and having two daughters, and being cheap, mowing the lawn falls on me. First time was on a weekday afternoon, a neighbor, far as I can tell, lives up the street, casually stops his car by the driveway, gets out and calls me over, thought he was lost first, no greetings, just comes up says "how much do you charge?", was actually too stunned to say anything, I think he took my non-answer as no english and goes his way. Second time was on a Saturday, I actually had the garage door up so the Ferrari's were on full display, no biggie, my immediate neighbors are use to it, been there 10+ years, same thing, a car stops by the driveway, two women in a MB, both hop out looks at the cars which were on the lift, spends about minute peeking in and then finally walks over to me to ask if the owner was home and before I could answer, you guess it "how much do I charge?" I just shrug my shoulders, which I think they took as "I just work here" and left.

 

One of my friends did that to his next door neighbor. lol

As for the second time, my great aunt lived in an expensive place in LA. She was a designer and her husband was quite wealthy and drove a nice Lincoln. She was very low key and drove a Pinto. Several times people came by the house and asked her if she was the owner. Her reply, "I'm just the housekeeper."

 

I've done that with door-to-door salespeople when they catch me outside - "nah man I just work here".

 

Reviving an old thread with a funny story about being overdressed for the situation. This is the second time this has happened to me. We've had a ton of rain up at the ranch the past few weeks. Our roads are in pretty tough shape. Driving a car on them is tough and I don't like bringing my big truck to the city so I left the ranch last week in a mud covered, and I mean covered, Jeep. We had tickets to the theater and I was late. So I threw on a suit at the ranch, drove back to the city, picked the Mrs. up, and went to the performance. On the way from the theater to our city home I was stopped for a light out which was actually just covered with mud. The cop walks up to the window, sees me in a suit, the Mrs. dressed to the nines, and bursts out laughing.

"A Jeep that looks like it just came from a 4 wheeler mud run being driven by a guy in a suit. I figured I'd get some 16 year old kid. Mister what are you doing?"​

I explained our ranch, theater, etc. He couldn't stop laughing.

"Fix the light will you? Get out of here and try not to mess up the suit when you're crawling out of this thing. Have a good evening sir."​

I'm sure I looked pretty comical. I think I made his night.

 

Should have flashed him with a wrist shot to finish the look

 

I take the Oscar Wilde approach:

"If I am occasionally a little under-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated"



(*and for those who like to search quotes, Oscar actually said "If I am occasionally a little over-dressed...")

 

Dave , you have no business posting anything in “Underdressed “ thread . I’m going to call the fashion police.

 

<chuckle>