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LL Bean's Duck Boots: business casual appropiate?

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#22 ·
Shaver said:
^ If you managed to 'pull' any ladies in that get-up then you thoroughly deserve your diploma. :thumbs-up:
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No problem at all. As I remember, except for the Duckhead chinos, the girls wore the same things as the guys. It does seem strange now that I think about it. But it was the mid-80s. The time of Prince, Culture Club, Michael Jackson, British new wave, etc. A lot of androgyny in the dress code.

I think that this is definitive proof that at the age of 18-21 both men and women look good in anything. It's all downhill from there...
 
#23 ·
I frequently wear mine to the office. However, I'm a university student and my "job" is an unpaid internship with the University's government relations office. Most of my day is spent walking to and from class all around campus, so Beans Boots are an absolute necessity, in my eyes. I often wear them with chinos, an OCBD, tie, and blazer. It might not be the "ideal" look but... It is currently March 27th, I'm on spring break, and there is legitimately 6 inches of snow on the ground. At this point the Bean Boot is a part of my survival instincts, I believe!:eek:
 
#24 ·
Jovan said:
Negative. There's a line, and it's a thin one, but Bean boots at work are a no-no. I'm starting to feel the same about camp mocs and boat shoes with business casual.
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I would wear Bean boots at work, but not boat shoes or camp mocs at work unless it was Friday(I still don't, but I could see it). Bean boots serve a purpose. I also wear in a very casual office (sneakers are allowed), but I keep a slightly more conservative code.
 
#25 ·
I was thinking the exact same thing. Back then, chicks did dress the same.

Snow Hill Pond said:
No problem at all. As I remember, except for the Duckhead chinos, the girls wore the same things as the guys. It does seem strange now that I think about it. But it was the mid-80s. The time of Prince, Culture Club, Michael Jackson, British new wave, etc. A lot of androgyny in the dress code.

I think that this is definitive proof that at the age of 18-21 both men and women look good in anything. It's all downhill from there...
Click to expand...
 
#26 ·
Shaver said:
^ Honestly?
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This is an Northeast United States "New England Preppy" thing. I grew up wearing them and they seem normal as heck to me. I own four versions and couldn't live without them. I work in finance and on snowy or monsoon days, I have gone to meeting where men are in $3000 custom suits, Hermes ties, et al. and LL Bean boots - it is understood by those who grew up in that culture that it is acceptable. If I hadn't grown up here, I would be with Shaver thinking they look like some sort of weird moon attire.

And in high school and college everyone wore them, guys and girls. Most regions have there "things" that you either grew up there and get or not. I am not going to defend these away from the Northeast, but in the Northeast, they are part of the Wasp / Prep / Trad culture.
 
#27 ·
Fading Fast said:
This is an Northeast United States "New England Preppy" thing. I grew up wearing them and they seem normal as heck to me. I own four versions and couldn't live without them. I work in finance and on snowy or monsoon days, I have gone to meeting where men are in $3000 custom suits, Hermes ties, et al. and LL Bean boots - it is understood by those who grew up in that culture that it is acceptable. If I hadn't grown up here, I would be with Shaver thinking they look like some sort of weird moon attire.

And in high school and college everyone wore them, guys and girls. Most regions have there "things" that you either grew up there and get or not. I am not going to defend these away from the Northeast, but in the Northeast, they are part of the Wasp / Prep / Trad culture.
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Image


Agreed. Approved by Col. Armstrong. Ideal shoes for a moonwalk. :thumbs-up:

Contraindicated in any other circumstance.
 
#28 · (Edited)
#30 ·
Snow Hill Pond said:
This sounds very close to being an apology. Hold fast. The Brits have their own idiosyncracies. Like this fascination with serving cold dry toast in those cute toast racks.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8374222/Eat-marmalade-on-cold-toast-says-scientist.html
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I sometime let my toast cool so that the butter doesn't melt all the way because good butter has a nuanced flavor that gets lost when melted. And I kid you not, I am typing this with a piece of cool toast topped with butter next to my computer.
 
#31 ·
Fading Fast said:
This is an Northeast United States "New England Preppy" thing. I grew up wearing them and they seem normal as heck to me. I own four versions and couldn't live without them. I work in finance and on snowy or monsoon days, I have gone to meeting where men are in $3000 custom suits, Hermes ties, et al. and LL Bean boots - it is understood by those who grew up in that culture that it is acceptable. If I hadn't grown up here, I would be with Shaver thinking they look like some sort of weird moon attire.

And in high school and college everyone wore them, guys and girls. Most regions have there "things" that you either grew up there and get or not. I am not going to defend these away from the Northeast, but in the Northeast, they are part of the Wasp / Prep / Trad culture.
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Alas, another Yankee who thinks the world revolves around New York and that everything cool is a Northeaat or New England "thing" that the rest of us wouldn't understand. Bean Boots have been ubiquitous on college campuses across the South for decades. I'm a fourth generation Floridian and I've owned a pair for as long as I can remember. I know LLB is in Maine, but that doesn't mean thier goods are only appreciated in the Northeast.
 
#32 ·
FLCracka said:
Alas, another Yankee who thinks the world revolves around New York and that everything cool is a Northeaat or New England "thing" that the rest of us wouldn't understand. Bean Boots have been ubiquitous on college campuses across the South for decades. I'm a fourth generation Floridian and I've owned a pair for as long as I can remember. I know LLB is in Maine, but that doesn't mean thier goods are only appreciated in the Northeast.
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I am going to assume good will and apologize as, upon rereading my post after your invective, I can understand your interpretation of it. I did not in intend to say that others outside New England wouldn't understand them as an insult, but as a way of saying I thought they were a regional thing. I do not have the opinion that the world revolves around New York (nor the very, very modest home I grew up in NJ), but again, thought they were more of a regional thing. And finally, I did not say, nor do I think, that everything "cool" comes from the Northeast - I love clothes and items from all around the country and world. And, again, I apologize as I believe good manners (and bad) are not regional.
 
#33 ·
Occasionally, I'll lecture/teach in mine. Each semester, the first time my students see me in a navy blazer, khakis, bow tie, and duck boots, they snicker a bit, but they get used to it. A few colleagues still roll their eyes (Yankees, most of them, evidently not ones from New England), but on days where I have to walk to multiple buildings across campus, I have neither time nor the space to fiddle with galoshes. I may be an idiosyncratic, incongruous Bubba, but with all due respect, at least I ain't baroque.
 
#34 ·
FLCracka said:
Alas, another Yankee who thinks the world revolves around New York and that everything cool is a Northeaat or New England "thing" that the rest of us wouldn't understand. Bean Boots have been ubiquitous on college campuses across the South for decades. I'm a fourth generation Floridian and I've owned a pair for as long as I can remember. I know LLB is in Maine, but that doesn't mean thier goods are only appreciated in the Northeast.
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Aren't you assuming a bit much by his post? All he did was talk about his experience. He never said the world revolved around the northeast. And honestly, I had only seen one pair of Bean boots in person in Florida -- a pair owned by my mother since she was the age I am now.
 
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#35 ·
Fading Fast said:
I am going to assume good will and apologize as, upon rereading my post after your invective, I can understand your interpretation of it. I did not in intend to say that others outside New England wouldn't understand them as an insult, but as a way of saying I thought they were a regional thing. I do not have the opinion that the world revolves around New York (nor the very, very modest home I grew up in NJ), but again, thought they were more of a regional thing. And finally, I did not say, nor do I think, that everything "cool" comes from the Northeast - I love clothes and items from all around the country and world. And, again, I apologize as I believe good manners (and bad) are not regional.
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Kudos for handling this well.
 
#37 ·
No need to apologize FF. Sometimes "tone" doesn't translate well in writing, and in rereading my post, the tounge in cheek tone that I was feeling as I typed it didn't really come across as I read it. While I have encountered many New Yorkers with an ethnocentric view of things, I wasn't seriously accusing you of having that viewpoint. Actually, I was....that just wasn't my intent. Maybe I need to start using those smiley face thingies. :) Apologies back at you. Anyway, my only real point was that Bean boots are every bit as much a Southern prep staple as they are a New England/Northeast prep staple.
 
#38 ·
Shaver said:
Image


Agreed. Approved by Col. Armstrong. Ideal shoes for a moonwalk. :thumbs-up:

Contraindicated in any other circumstance.
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Hilarious, and begs the question: What would Michael Jackson wear?

Not to nitpick, but the tread pattern pictured is not from Bean's supplier in Maine, which leads me to conclude that Armstrong was a sellout, even if he did have the good sense to wear a Speedmaster watch.
 
#39 ·
FLCracka said:
No need to apologize FF. Sometimes "tone" doesn't translate well in writing, and in rereading my post, the tounge in cheek tone that I was feeling as I typed it didn't really come across as I read it. While I have encountered many New Yorkers with an ethnocentric view of things, I wasn't seriously accusing you of having that viewpoint. Actually, I was....that just wasn't my intent. Maybe I need to start using those smiley face thingies. :) Apologies back at you. Anyway, my only real point was that Bean boots are every bit as much a Southern prep staple as they are a New England/Northeast prep staple.
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All is good - thank you for this post. And, most importantly, I'm happy to hear that my favorite boot has a broader audience than I knew. I bet though that my fleece-lined ones wouldn't be needed in the South :)
 
#40 ·
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