Testing

I'd say you need to put the emphasis on boozing and then everything else suddenly gets more appealing.

Poor dress standards?
One of the dangers of commissioning the Working Classes I suspect...

;)

Charity shops, ladies, out of town charity shops in top end areas:ok:

Axel-FLo, I'm afraid it is a sign of the times. Tradition within the Officers Mess and the Sergeants Mess has been eroding away steadily as the new, politically correct generation take over. Farming out the running of the messes to civilians was just about the last straw.

Go to the ball, dress in the traditional mess kit, your wife/girlfriend in her traditional long ball gown and have a whale of a time. Ignore what others are wearing, you have absolutely no say in it, unless you want to get up on your hind legs at the next mess meeting and let fly at the upper echelons of the mess hierarchy!!!

PCD.......NO!

We did go we did enjoy it, and despite all the grumpy old men type comments I made, the big thing point for me was simply trying to justify to my guests why I had sort of insisted that the appropriate ettiquette thing to do was abide by the dress requirements on the invitation. Had they not annotated it so I would have worn the same mess kit, Mrs Flo (also known as centrifugal to close friends and relatives) would have worn the ball gown (yep even the cheap £180 job) Lets just not pretend we are aiming at standards we have no intention or desire to uphold or enforce. :ok:

Axel-Flo
I was probably at the same one as you and my wife and guests were all wearing the correct dress standards as dictated on the tickets. My guests commented about the complete lack of standards among some of the other guests and I had to apologise and say they must be associate members but I did see some senior officers partners missing the standard by some margin. The real nail in the coffin for me was an inappropriately dressed older lady and daughter 'smoking' in a public room. She couldn't see why she shouldn't smoke there!!!

Still it was a brilliant evening and my guests thought it was the best they had attended. Whinge over

PA

Olyimpics! Laaaarnden mi san!
 

Always nice to get one over! Never a chore!
That'll teach Shee Rack to have a pop at our grub!

Fancy some humble pie!

Wrong subject matter, Goldstar! Try again on the Olympics forum. This forum is about Summer Balls and the lack of adherence to the dress code!

Never were very sharp on 31 Sqn!

Have to confess to agreeing with AF on this one, which considering I joined as SL Aircrew feels very strange and a bit hypocritical!!

Mrs Bear and some civvie friends will be joining me to attend the current establishments (Non WAFU Mess) ball in a couple of weeks, have to say she has been a star and found the most fantastic dress for a snip and looks a million dollars in it, do hope you read this dear..........

However it does appear ridiculous to put a dress code on a ball ticket and not enforce it, surely an edict from the Mess Press a month or 6 weeks before to try and ensure attendees attire themselves correctly, or option B, scrap the dress code and accept that era is passed and people can come in just about anything that claims to be decent.

Hey ho must be getting old I guess!!

Notice on the intranet site at sunny Wyton regarding the forthcoming SNCOs' Mess Ball. Stating that the CMC would be at the entrance to greet everyone, oh yes, and to warn that those not meeting appropriate standards would be refused entry.

Some things shouldn't change, and some things just won't change, but they might die a long slow death.

Safety_Helmut

The Man has Standards!
 

Well done the Wyton CMC. He's nailed his colours to the mast and more to the point is going to stand by them. Mr who ever you are I doff my hat to you.

Having been to one summer ball where the PMC's wife wore a dress revealing her midriff (I kid you not) then it becomes clear that the slip in standards seems to be across the board, even amongst those supposedly enforcing them.

Went to one Summer Ball at ISK where the CMC's wife wore a dress that exactly matched the colour and spacing of the Marquee's blue and white vertical stripes. Watching her hubby's frantic attempts to remain "locked on" to her while dancing was priceless..........