Elegance

When I was a youngster my career path took me to the hallowed halls of academia.

Many things were possible in those sacred places including getting away with the daggiest wardrobe on the planet.

I spent years in blue shorts, dodgy short-sleeve shirts and veldskoen shoes. I cannot recall a colleague who was stylishly dressed. Eccentric and out there certainly, but not stylish.

Later in the business world, where people spend much more clothes, there were a few who had style with $500 shoes, trim shirts and Italian suits.

Along the corridors of buildings that house public servants I see an inbetween style, not quite super daggy and not designer either.

Now, as I stare down the delightful prospect of retirement, I can safely say that only a handful of people in all the years and places have true elegance and it is in the way they walk, not what they wear.