DEAR MISS MANNERS: What is your opinion on the appropriateness of cruise ship guests who continue to wear formal wear to the main dining room when the cruise line's dress code only requires designer jeans and button-down shirts for men? I think ladies in long gowns in such circumstances to be similar to guests wearing white dresses to weddings!
GENTLE READER: How so? The rationale for wedding guests not wearing white is that they might be mistaken for the bride, or, less charitably, that they might outshine her.
Miss Manners doubts that passengers pack evening clothes with the hope of making other passengers look shabby. Rather, they are channeling the glamorous old days of ships, when evening clothes were the rule. Nowadays, there are few opportunities to dress up.
So let them enjoy it. If you feel outdone, you may bring dressy clothes of your own.
(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)