Oh my gauche!

Gather 'round ye cellphone cacklers, McMansion dwellers, theater talkers, and unrepentant fashion victims. Letitia Baldrige needs to tell you something: You are a tasteless lot.

Oh, all right. The longtime manners expert, who once served as chief of staff to style icon Jacqueline Kennedy, is far too tasteful to call you that. But in her summer read, "Taste: Acquiring What Money Can't Buy," Baldrige laments the loss of taste in today's overly plugged-in, obsessively consumptive world.

"I think that today, with all the money that we have, we have very little understanding of what taste is," Baldrige recently explained from her home in Washington, D.C. "We're becoming so show-offy."

Baldrige hopes to encourage a return to the social mores of yore: thoughtful dress, common courtesies, the occasional technology-free conversation. We surveyed some of the city's tastemakers to see what they think constitutes good taste, and what gaucheries from the past they still regret.

LEAH ECKELBERGER

Owner, Jean Therapy

Define good taste: Good taste is knowing who you are and expressing it in a way that reflects you, your culture, and your lifestyle.

Most tasteful person you've met: My girlfriend Elizabeth is my everyday example of taste in terms of culture. And she also knows that sometimes bad taste can be good and fun, too. She hosts karaoke at Club Café, for goodness sake.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: I was 12 and I got a perm because all my friends had beautiful wavy or curly hair. So I was this Asian girl with a really bad suburban perm and straight bangs. It looked awful and was in bad taste, because instead of paying attention to what looked good on me, I was too busy trying to be something I wasn't.

BERNARD TOALE

Owner, Bernard Toale Gallery

Define good taste: I think taste really has to do with taking the time to look at things, it has to do with a certain kind of education that doesn't even have to do with formal education -- it's about taking the time to learn something and then about the relationships that go along with that.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? I think this is probably an age-related response, but I just find it so befuddling to be in rooms with people where half of them are on their cellphones. Cellphone manners need to be offered in some public schools.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: The way I decorated my first house, the way I used to dress in the '70s. . . . The inside of my car is also something to be questioned.

MICHELE MERCALDO

Jewelry designer

Define good taste: I would define good taste as an ability to embrace a style and infuse it with some personal flair and a little bit of restraint.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? I think the most glaring example of bad taste in America is the strip mall, which is a blight on the landscape and lacks any kind of personal touch or imagination.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: I think a clear example of bad taste was when I was in my 20s, I showed up to a wedding that I did not RSVP to. That's the clearest example of bad taste I can think of.

SUSAN CALLENDER

Owner, Boston Unique Events

Define good taste: Good taste is the art of living well. It's timeless, elegant, and always appropriate, regardless of the setting.

Most tasteful person you've met: [Interior designer] Suzanne Logan, [The Partnership, Inc. past president] Bennie Wiley, and [interior designer] Alina Apteker. Each has a definite sense of what looks and feels good, be it in decor, entertaining, or personal style.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? Public cellphone usage, lack of chivalrous acts, loud, attention-grabbing personalities, not dressing age appropriate, using profanity, and lack of general courtesy. I'm so glad that low-cut jeans are going out of style.

BETTY RIAZ

Owner, Stil boutiques

Most tasteful person you've met: [Customer] Layla Al-khater. She is so sexy and beautiful. It's all about her looking her personal best.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? Manners are the big thing for me. We're so busy -- people don't have time to refine their lives. Stop, sit down, have a cup of coffee in the morning, enjoy your life. If we just go back to the basics, everything will fall into place.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: Oh yes. When I was 18 years old, I was really into vintage clothes from the Salvation Army. One day I decided to dye my hair blue and also wear blue mascara. I'll never forget my mom looking at me, in my blue hair and blue mascara and my Salvation Army clothes.

ANNE HAWLEY

Director, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Define good taste: I think taste is all about composition. I think anything that composes well is probably in good taste. When anything is really out of scale or jarringly wrong, we say it's in bad taste. I also think there are taste setters, and to me those are people who are just plain original thinkers.

Most tasteful person you've met: In terms of architecture, I.M. Pei and Renzo Piano -- both world-class architects.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? Well, I think there are too many buildings on Huntington Avenue. That whole area is such a disappointment. Every time I do that [route], I feel like I'm in Houston.

CHRISTOPHER MIZESKI

Co-owner, Gallagher- Christopher Antiques

Define good taste: When I consider good taste, my points of reference are home fashion and design, basically the way that people place and live with objects. To me, the ability to successfully mix old and new things, both expensive and inexpensive, is a hallmark of good taste.

Most tasteful person you've met: This question is bound to get me into trouble because I am lucky to count many designers and taste makers as my friends. But I will take the risk and say that Dennis Duffy of Duffy Design Group and D Scale, and Michael Barnum of Barnum & Co., two of the city's most successful designers, would get my vote.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: A certain article of clothing from the heady disco days of the 1980s. Fashionable and perhaps chic then, but bad enough now to say, "What was I thinking?"

LISA PIERPONT

Founder/editor-in-chief, Boldfacers.com

Define good taste: To me, good taste begins on the inside and ends on the outside. In other words, it starts with inner confidence and a sense of self and is reflected through a style that is authentic and unique to that person's personality and spirit.

Can bad taste be overcome? Wouldn't that be great? Can someone please start up a 12-step program for this? I suppose it can be overcome if the person in question first recognizes he/she has a problem.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? I see a lot of the young celebrity women showing really poor judgment through their choices of clothes. It's one scantily clad girl after another -- they objectify themselves and women as a whole.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: I wore stirrup pants and fingerless gloves. Together. So "Desperately Seeking Susan." So desperate, period! I am dropping my head in shame right this second.

KEVIN McPHERSON

Co-founder, Mohr & McPherson

Most tasteful person you've met: I live with the person who I think is the most tasteful person: Chloe Sacks. She is the most aesthetically inclined person, in the way she dresses, the way she appreciates architecture and nature. . . . I find her taste nearly flawless.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? Things that make people literally attractive are now missing in both men and women's clothing. Our intention now is to dress like a child for an entire lifetime. People in their 30s are trying to dress like children.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: Well, I'm old enough to have lived through the disco era, and so I did own a pair of patent leather platform shoes. I also owned an AMC Gremlin -- but that was tongue in cheek.

BOBBY GARNETT

Owner, Bobby From Boston upscale vintage shop

Most tasteful person you've met: Ralph Lauren -- he's a very nice man, for one thing, and I like his clothing for new clothing.

Can bad taste be overcome? You have to have sort of a revelation I think. It depends on really how bad the taste is -- probably a lot of it cannot be overcome.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? Architecture -- it's right in your face. A lot of stuff that was thrown up in the '60s, the '70s . . . even though I like a lot of the clothing of the '60s, I don't like a lot of the architecture.

GRETCHEN MONAHAN

Fashion entrepreneur, salon owner

Most tasteful person you've met: [Event designer] Bryan Rafanelli. He has a refined and exact sense of style -- not only in his business, but it's a direct reflection in his person and how he treats everyone he interacts with.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? Most often it's displayed in public arenas and events where people are behaving in a less than tasteful manner. Even if the first impression is visually tasteful, distasteful behavior will always ruin the attempt.

Example of your own bad taste that still haunts you: My bad hair decade was the '80s. Regretfully, I have pictures to prove it, but I still credit the bad hair days that forced me into the beauty business to ensure that it never happens again!

CIBELINE SARIANO

Fashion designer and owner, Cibeline boutique

Define good taste: I definitely have always said less is more. I think some people tend to over-accessorize -- and I think that's true in many arenas. I shop estate sales and yard sales and my husband is cutting me off now -- I keep buying things for the house we don't need.

Most tasteful person you've met: I had the pleasure of meeting [late fashion editor] Carrie Donovan when I was a young fledgling hoping to get into the world of design, and she was quite impressive.

Where do you see examples of bad taste? Media. I think it's tasteless. I can't watch the evening news. I think bad drivers [are tasteless]; somebody who's constantly honking at you and expecting you to step on the gas pedal the moment the light turns green, who doesn't use their turn signal.