The revolution is just a t-shirt away!
While I wear clothing, I’m not a big ‘clothing guy’ – I have 3 shirts and pairs of shorts that I rotate, like Adult Garanimals.
And while I’m an avid practitioner of ‘Shorts between Easter and Thanksgiving’, My Captor recently bought me 3 pairs of pants, so I’m ready for dinner at the palace.
As an aside, if there’s only one short, why is it a pair? The internet saying back in the day there were “two pairs of fabric then joined at the waist” and the term stuck, even after it went to one. Same for a pair of pants. But I swear I heard AI giggling, so who knows.
But my decided lack of style My Captor’s fault, since she buys all my clothes. And prepares all my meals. And does my laundry. And waxes my skis. Now you know why I haven’t escaped…
Clothing and t-shirts came to mind on today’s walk, when I saw a young woman wearing a t-shirt reading:
Drink coffee. Fight racism. Empower women.
There were no instructions on how that worked, so I went home and had a cup of coffee – I wanted to help, as those are worthy goals – and googled the phrase.
There’s lots of clothing swag available with that slogan, all of which are beautifully designed.
But on search pages 2 and 3, things turned internet-ugly: A whole bunch of stuff associated with ‘designer’ coffee other than caffeine. Most of it bad, so I closed the page and thunk me a thought:
Clothes can be a lot more than clothes.
Some “Dress to Impress”, which my son and brother-in-law are very good at – though I got an A in “Dressing for the Weather” in college.
There are “fashionistas” – the people who everyone else wants to dress like – featured at the Met Gala. But in today’s Oligarchical world, with “Tax the poor” on their backs.
Others are “fashion trendanistas”, studying fashion and society. In an odd experience, a marketing professor asked me to read my “Economic trends and their influence on clothing styles” paper – which theorized short skirts are tied to good economic times – but who knew? There was no internet then, so it wasn’t mis/disinformation yet.
A quirky guy he, who co-invented the term Brand Image, and told our class “I didn’t believe in child abuse until I had children” – kidding, I believe.
My second favorite school line, behind only “If you’re that hard up, go ahead”, uttered in response to a classmate ‘kiddingly’ threatening to change a pencil notated grade before returning. A line I repeated frequently with my children…
And we make lots of fashion mistakes – but kids today (shakes fist angrily!) will regret theirs more than we did.
Ours were leisure suits and shoulder length hair, which disappeared when fashion changed, and since they predated cell phones, may not have happened at all.
Kids today have tattoos, which won’t age well – tramp stamps eventually looking like the bottom line of an eye exam.
But clothes can be life – or day – changing.
But that may be a gender thing, as the answer to “how do I look?” matters much more to women – would mirrors exist in a man-only society?
As another aside, can society continue to exist in a man-only society? Or can man exist after honestly answering the “Does my butt look big?” question?
My Captor just left for a baby shower, in a new dress that makes her look and feel great.
I’m wearing Adult Garanimal #2: khaki shorts/blue shirt.
Both of us comfortable in our own way…
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ENHANCE YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THIS POST, PAIR IT WITH THE FOLLOWING ‘AGING HIPSTER MUSIC’:
Stereolab are an avant-pop Anglo-French , their sound incorporating a motorik beat with a vintage keyboard. They are releasing a new album, their first in 15 years. An unusual, mildly odd, but fun sound. I’ve added ‘Jenny Ondioline’ ‘French Disko’ ‘Pack Yr Romantic Mind’, and ‘Aerial Troubles’ and ‘Melodie is a Wound’ from the new album.