A couple of years ago I was asked to hang up some concert posters in Leipzig, just a few days.
I went there in black outdoor clothing and military boots, because it was pretty cold and whet and for this job black outdoor clothing is very practical anyway for several reasons.
I discovered that Leipzig has much more shops than expected, had to order much more posters, stood until the evening of the concert and in the end I got the information that my colleagues couldn't come and I was asked to represent our agency during the concert, just backstage of course, but anyway in one of the most famous concert halls in the world. It was our first concert in Leipzig and that's after the Berlin Philharmonic Hall the second stage for classical music in Germany.
They are proud about it. I have seen nowhere in Europe citizens who are so proud about their musical heritage.
They have very good reasons to be proud about it, by the way: Already in the middle ages they had the famous Heinrich von Morungen, later Johann Sebastian Bach, until now his Thomanerchor, which is still the best German boy's choir, and the Gewandhausorchester is the largest orchestra in the world, the oldest civil orchestra in the German speaking countries and one of the best in the world anyway, although Leipzig is a rather small town with less than 600.000 inhabitants!
One can without any doubt sell concert tickets in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall in the box office wearing black outdoor clothing. It would be unusual but otherwise possible. Dress code for staff and musicians is usually dark blue or black there, what exactly doesnt matter, especially if you don't enter the stage.
But in Leipzig every visitor of classical concerts is wearing a dark suit and a tie, what I had seen when I distributed flyers for a few evenings.
Well, obviously I needed a black suit!
Three days before the concert I came along a thrift shop for second hand clothing that was organised by the Salvation Army, ask if I may hang up a concert poster and suddenly got the idea to ask about a black suit in my size.
It was amazing! They had lots of very good dark suits and they did cost next to nothing!
People who buy elegant clothing usually buy it new. People who inherit elegant clothing often don't fit into it and give it to such shops that are somehow related to the churches. But people who buy in such shops usually look for streetwear or work clothing for handcraft jobs. They don't have the money for the dry cleaning store and most unemployed people simply don't need such a suit.
There is nearly no market for used elegant clothing in very good condition. But the upper and upper middle class donates a lot of such stuff.
The old generation keeps such clothing in the wardrobe. Often the black suit was worn just for a few funerals, is donated as good as new and absolutely clean and often enough comes from the best houses of the whole area. Other conservative elegant clothing in different colours you find there as well!
If you think that you need such clothing I highly recommend to you to have a look in such shops who are related to the churches. If you tell them that you are poor and need it for a job interview you will perhaps pay 50 € for a nearly new high quality suit, perhaps even far less and with good luck they perhaps give it you for free if you are really poor.
After I understood what's going on, I bought all my elegant clothing exclusively in such shops everywhere in Germany and payed without any discussion what was written on the labels. I bought only as new looking classical stuff in best qualities and never payed more than 30 € per piece, for example for British made tweed jackets that cost regularly more than ten times more.
I had to stop buying such stuff, because although I sometimes also do backstage rough work in it and damage something from time to time, I have no chance to wear off all that in the rest of my life.
But it's always a pity if I hang up posters in such shops and see the dark suits and tweed collection hanging around there and I can't buy it because I simply don't have the space for that all and no realistical need.
It's the same with warm hunting jackets by the way. I bought one for 60 € that still had the maker's cardboard label attached with the original price, 650 €.
The best brand one can get here prêt à porter. Also here it's the same: Upper class donates what lower class has no use for. Unemployed German workers don't wear hunting jackets that are made of British tweed.
In Germany a black suit with black shirt without tie, black leather belt, black leather shoes and black socks and perhaps a black woolen coat is always well dressed in circles of artists and those who trade with art. Which kind of art doesn't matter. (And in Berlin we wear since Friedrich II a black suit anyway, if not uniform.)
Really black jeans one can wear too. Why not? We usually also don't wear a tie.
Some people wear other clothing of course, but black from head to toe is still pretty much the standard. Colourful is the art, not the art manager.
I guess it's pretty much the same in London and Paris, but I didn't pay attention about it when we got guests from there. But backstage in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall I have seen nearly exclusively black and I did spend thousands of evenings there. And if I distribute concert flyers in art galleries most people wear black as well.
I guess traders of classical paintings rather wear tweed in muted colours like the traders of expensive antique furnitures during the day. In the museums it's surely similar.
But otherwise:
I personally absolutely don't care about what new colleagues wear. Intersting for me is what they speak and do.
In our offices I also wear very often hunting green, and did wear in Berlin even leather knickerbockers. And I wear my bushcraft stuff nowadays also in the concert evenings in churches and smaller halls. Well, actually in Cathedrals too.
But I am neither young nor a beginner.
Twenty years ago I followed the dress code of course. In Berlin black clothing is practical anyway. One is always well dressed and the stuff doesn't get dirty so soon.
And if you put down during the concert your most efficient wild posters nobody can see you in the dark.
I went there in black outdoor clothing and military boots, because it was pretty cold and whet and for this job black outdoor clothing is very practical anyway for several reasons.
I discovered that Leipzig has much more shops than expected, had to order much more posters, stood until the evening of the concert and in the end I got the information that my colleagues couldn't come and I was asked to represent our agency during the concert, just backstage of course, but anyway in one of the most famous concert halls in the world. It was our first concert in Leipzig and that's after the Berlin Philharmonic Hall the second stage for classical music in Germany.
They are proud about it. I have seen nowhere in Europe citizens who are so proud about their musical heritage.
They have very good reasons to be proud about it, by the way: Already in the middle ages they had the famous Heinrich von Morungen, later Johann Sebastian Bach, until now his Thomanerchor, which is still the best German boy's choir, and the Gewandhausorchester is the largest orchestra in the world, the oldest civil orchestra in the German speaking countries and one of the best in the world anyway, although Leipzig is a rather small town with less than 600.000 inhabitants!
One can without any doubt sell concert tickets in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall in the box office wearing black outdoor clothing. It would be unusual but otherwise possible. Dress code for staff and musicians is usually dark blue or black there, what exactly doesnt matter, especially if you don't enter the stage.
But in Leipzig every visitor of classical concerts is wearing a dark suit and a tie, what I had seen when I distributed flyers for a few evenings.
Well, obviously I needed a black suit!
Three days before the concert I came along a thrift shop for second hand clothing that was organised by the Salvation Army, ask if I may hang up a concert poster and suddenly got the idea to ask about a black suit in my size.
It was amazing! They had lots of very good dark suits and they did cost next to nothing!
People who buy elegant clothing usually buy it new. People who inherit elegant clothing often don't fit into it and give it to such shops that are somehow related to the churches. But people who buy in such shops usually look for streetwear or work clothing for handcraft jobs. They don't have the money for the dry cleaning store and most unemployed people simply don't need such a suit.
There is nearly no market for used elegant clothing in very good condition. But the upper and upper middle class donates a lot of such stuff.
The old generation keeps such clothing in the wardrobe. Often the black suit was worn just for a few funerals, is donated as good as new and absolutely clean and often enough comes from the best houses of the whole area. Other conservative elegant clothing in different colours you find there as well!
If you think that you need such clothing I highly recommend to you to have a look in such shops who are related to the churches. If you tell them that you are poor and need it for a job interview you will perhaps pay 50 € for a nearly new high quality suit, perhaps even far less and with good luck they perhaps give it you for free if you are really poor.
After I understood what's going on, I bought all my elegant clothing exclusively in such shops everywhere in Germany and payed without any discussion what was written on the labels. I bought only as new looking classical stuff in best qualities and never payed more than 30 € per piece, for example for British made tweed jackets that cost regularly more than ten times more.
I had to stop buying such stuff, because although I sometimes also do backstage rough work in it and damage something from time to time, I have no chance to wear off all that in the rest of my life.
But it's always a pity if I hang up posters in such shops and see the dark suits and tweed collection hanging around there and I can't buy it because I simply don't have the space for that all and no realistical need.
It's the same with warm hunting jackets by the way. I bought one for 60 € that still had the maker's cardboard label attached with the original price, 650 €.
The best brand one can get here prêt à porter. Also here it's the same: Upper class donates what lower class has no use for. Unemployed German workers don't wear hunting jackets that are made of British tweed.
In Germany a black suit with black shirt without tie, black leather belt, black leather shoes and black socks and perhaps a black woolen coat is always well dressed in circles of artists and those who trade with art. Which kind of art doesn't matter. (And in Berlin we wear since Friedrich II a black suit anyway, if not uniform.)
Really black jeans one can wear too. Why not? We usually also don't wear a tie.
Some people wear other clothing of course, but black from head to toe is still pretty much the standard. Colourful is the art, not the art manager.
I guess it's pretty much the same in London and Paris, but I didn't pay attention about it when we got guests from there. But backstage in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall I have seen nearly exclusively black and I did spend thousands of evenings there. And if I distribute concert flyers in art galleries most people wear black as well.
I guess traders of classical paintings rather wear tweed in muted colours like the traders of expensive antique furnitures during the day. In the museums it's surely similar.
But otherwise:
I personally absolutely don't care about what new colleagues wear. Intersting for me is what they speak and do.
In our offices I also wear very often hunting green, and did wear in Berlin even leather knickerbockers. And I wear my bushcraft stuff nowadays also in the concert evenings in churches and smaller halls. Well, actually in Cathedrals too.
But I am neither young nor a beginner.
Twenty years ago I followed the dress code of course. In Berlin black clothing is practical anyway. One is always well dressed and the stuff doesn't get dirty so soon.
And if you put down during the concert your most efficient wild posters nobody can see you in the dark.
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. You've done your bit and now its out of your hands. Fingers crossed they will see sense and make the right decision. Only ever had one interview myself, it was so terrifying, i felt like I was in the dock ! So much so, it was never to be repeated and i joined an industry that took you on at face value and sacked you off within an hour if you didn't cut the mustard. Good luck Sir !
