Plum Velvet Suit

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Kemper wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37784>:

<< on Main I suggested that DD could be gay a year before DH came out.
So I think my gaydar in literature can pick up a blip from a soliloquy
or a flamboyantly cut suit of plum velvet. >>

To which Potioncat replied in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37789>:

<< I couldn't decide if JKR was telling us something about
Dumbledore with that outfit, or if it was an example of wizards not
understanding how Muggles dress. Plum (DD), bottle green (Harry), and
burgandy (Ron) seem normal colors for wizards. >>

And Kemper replied in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37791>:

<< I always thought that DD could play a Muggle easily. >>

To which, Carol replied in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37794>:

<< I agree that DD could have played a Muggle easily even without
resorting to Polyjuice Potion or Transfiguration beyond a temporary
shaving spell and haircut that could be magically reversed. Why did he
choose to stand out? i guess he figured that, with his long hair and
beard, he might as well wear a flamboyant suit to match. He was stared
at, but not as much as he would have been if he'd worn Wizard's robes
or an outfit like Bob Ogden's striped bathing suit and spats. >>

Potioncat, maybe it was both. Maybe DD knew a lot more about Muggle
clothing than did  Bob Ogden, but didn't know as much as he thought he
did, so he filled in the gaps in his knowledge with his
wizard-culture-influenced idea of what would look normal to Muggles,
so that he created what Harry recognized as a suit, but one flamboyant
in cut, color, and fabric.

(I have been told (but don't know if it's true: where's Pip!Squeak
when I need her?) that costume designers for period movies and plays
have a similar problem: they want some amount of accuracy in the
period costumes, but not so much that the modern audience's response
to the sight of the beautiful actress is "What an ugly dress!")

Perhaps he could be excused for gaps in his knowledge of Muggle
fashions because he's so old and Muggle fashions change so fast. Maybe
some of the cut of his suit was not intended as flamboyance, but came
from his memory of Muggle clothing he wore in the first decade of the
20th century.  I can't make up an excuse like that for plum velvet,
unless he was confusing adult men's clothing with young boys's Little
Lord  Fauntleroy suits.

On another hand, Carol, maybe it's related to that QWC remark about
wizards being unable to resist showing off to each other when they
gather together. Maybe DD was such a Muggle-lover that he even wanted
to show off to Muggles. After all, whether or not he had intended to
attract attention, once he noticed that he was drawing stares, he
could have gone away and changed his clothes if he didn't want stares.

By the way, Carol, do we know that there is a temporary and reversible
beard-removal and hair-shortening spell? Is there canon that wizards'
hair is not just as resistant to magic as the misshapen lenses (and
corneas?) of wizards' eyes.

Kemper! Are you suggesting that that was a suit he already owned, for
purposes of hanging out in Muggle gay bars?