What was considered "not comme il faut" in former times and what is inappropriate now?
In Russia, there have been times when the Russianword, and the Russian face, according to the classic, was not easy to meet, of course, in a world of light and half-light. Then our language was replenished with many French borrowings. In the twentieth century, most of them were abandoned, they can still be found in the works of Chekhov, Staritsky, Bunin and other classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but they are used, more likely, with an ironic tinge. Today, foreign words are again in vogue, in particular, those that our ancestors used before the revolution. Making a remark about the irrelevance of an object in a given situation, designers use the expression "not comme il faut". And what, in fact, means this phrase?
Not the way you need to
The French expression comme il faut is translatedas "as it should be." In combination with the denying Russian "no" it acquires the opposite meaning (not comme il faut). Of course, this is not about grammatical errors or violation of traffic rules, but about the norms of etiquette. With this, unfortunately, we have problems often - the absence of a system of grafting aesthetic concepts, which has been observed for many decades, is affected. What is really a sin to hide, on the technical side of education, our universities completely ignored such an important part of enlightenment as the ability to behave, correctly talk, eat, dress and other moments, in the old days quite natural. No one is surprised by a man with an engineer's diploma (sometimes not with one), chomping at a table dressing a tie not in the tone of a shirt and suit, unable to invite a lady to dance. Particularly depressing, if the standards of conduct are not trained officers, however, and other experts are also not always pleasing. They are not to blame, they just have not explained what a comicalo is.
Soviet etiquette
People of the older generation know, and young peopleit is known from the films that until the end of the seventies in the Soviet Union without a tie they did not let him into the restaurant. In the theaters, the situation was a little freer, but, going to the play, every spectator thought about how to dress properly. The men took out jacket pairs from the closet, women - their most beautiful dresses. If there were ornaments, then they wore them, and from whom they were absent, they managed with elegant costume jewelery. A sophisticated old-regime concept was not used, but our fellow citizens even without it understood that a working overall or old trousers with a sweater that was out of place in the center of culture was "not comme il faut". By the way, workers, peasants, intellectuals and students considered it necessary to have at least one elegant suit in their wardrobe, or better two, light (gray or beige) and dark (blue or black).
About what you need, holding the fork in the left, and the knifein the right hand, most people were aware of the stories of connoisseurs of etiquette, but this, in essence, ended with information about good manners. There were translated books (usually Polish or Czech authors), which described in detail what to wear and how to behave in order to be known as a well-bred person. Circulations of these publications were bought up instantly. Professionally trained in the etiquette of future diplomats.
New Russian aesthetics and its overcoming
In the period of accumulation of initial capital,which occurred in the nineties, there arose a new social class for our country who quickly became rich entrepreneurs, for whom the money earned or "made" by them became a measure of the universal equivalent. The corresponding and very specific tastes of the "masters of life" have significantly influenced the public consciousness. The population, who perceived the new Russian aesthetics as "not comme il faut", had to put up with the ideas imposed on him about the appropriateness of this or that manner of behaving or dressing. The norm was diamond earrings in combination with a swimsuit-bikini or fashionable worn jeans. Some of these manners survived today, but it is necessary to pay tribute to the surviving representatives of the business world, they quickly overcame this childhood disease "righteous." Apparently, there were teachers who explained the majority of new millionaires, which means "not comme il faut". Or maybe they looked in foreign voyages ...
