How do may parents manage to look "respectable"?

[AutoGroup]

I ask because my Dad dropped in on me at work, a public facing role where we see a wide cross section of people.

Dad didn't say who he was, just gave his name which is different to mine. My colleague came to tell me "there's a very respectable looking gent here to see you"

My parents are proper old fashioned English eccentrics. Slightly wild hair, mum never wears make up, clothes from M&S or the supermarket, always chosen for comfort and practicality rather than style.

They're always clean, but not much more effort than that goes into their appearance and yet they do both manage to present as "respectable". Why is that?

[Tashkentmoon]

Slim with good skin , good posture and well spoken maybe?

[FlibbertyGiblets]

@Tashkentmoon

Slim with good skin , good posture and well spoken maybe?

Deffo. Possibly when accompanied by lovely manners, a tip of a hat, a neat furl of an umbrella.

(I miss my father, can you tell?)

[HelenHywater]

Did she just mean Old(er) and Posh do you think?

[Legomania]

Yeah, they obviously have the level of disheveled that codes to 'posh' rather than 'fallen on hard times'.

[MandoInABar]

I was thinking that - it's the right kind of scruffy 😄

[AutoGroup]

They're not posh though. Both very working class backgrounds. Dad left school at 14. Mum was a grammar school girl, but her father was a builder. Decent but definitely not posh.

[dontgobaconmyheart]

Perhaps it was just how he asked? Polite and well mannered.

That or it could be age and a simple turn of phrase that doesn't have much meaning. An older man who your colleague doesn't know is related to you; I'd probably express similar to imply they seemed nice and normal rather than a random potentially odd old man creeping around at work.

Same logic as we often revert to saying 'an older gentlemen' about an older man, out of some modicum of respect. Doesn't really mean they are or anything at all really other than politeness and they seemed fine.

[thedevilinablackdress]

You said in your OP that they're 'proper old fashioned English eccentrics' so they've obviously got something about them that prompted the comment. Style? Flair?