Designer clothes

[denverpilot]

Thinking I should add at least a couple of nicer pieces to my wardrobe at my age, I ordered some "designer" clothes on the internet recently. I got sucked into some article about "age appropriate" dress. Then I realized all I wear is sport/polos and jeans like 98% of the time.

Yeah. Hmm. Wardrobe crisis. Or whatever.

So I tried some place out where you talk to a person who knows "fashion" and they box up some crap they think you'll like and send it to you. You check it out, return anything you don't like, and pay for whatever you kept.

Knowing there is a service involved here and I don't have to go anywhere near a damn mall, or alternately spend more than five minutes in Amazon looking at clothes, I know this is going to be a ripoff, price wise, but hell... It's this or drive to Men's Warehouse or something. I'm going for lazy here. Maybe I'll get a few nice things.

The stuff came and I about gagged on the price tag. People actually pay this much for clothing? YGBFKM. Well, let's at least try some stuff on,,,

Two shirts, ordered TWO sizes too by the young lady fashionista who knew my sizes, still didn't fit me. They apparently are sized for those hipsters you see who look like little twig men wearing bowler hats on TV. Back they go.

One very nice white cotton shirt like you see sailor types wear on boats fit well and actually looked alright on me. I look at the tag and gawk at almost $100 for a shirt and decide I'll NEVER go to a store and find or shop for something like that, so I keep it,

Pants... Showed up six inches too long in the legs, but they were the wrong size sent. Emailed the place... they said my size wasn't available anyway and could I get to a tailor? Sure. I'll just pop in over to the tailor on my evening walk in the country. ROFL. Back they went. Must say, nice material for chino type pants. Liked them, but sizes...

Shoes. The girl must have missed that I live on a dirt road. I said "boat shoes" and she sent black suede ones. ROFL. Suede shoes with a giant dog who sheds white whiskers of fur and a dirt driveway. Back in the box,

Shorts. Amazingly they fit and really nice material. Okay so I'm seeing a trend here. Better material for higher prices, but I'm not even going to admit what these cost. I kept them.

One plaid shirt was nice but I'd said summer stuff and it's decidedly heavier material and long sleeved. I kept it. Haven't seen a plaid pattern like that in blues and greens and hell, you could even wear it with jeans.

....

Fast forward a couple of days.

I put on that nice white cotton casual boat shirt thing. And an older pair of Dockers/chinos. Dress socks and some casual leather shoes and a decent belt.

Go to work. Remember I'm in "IT management" now. I figured I'd wear something just a LiTTLE nicer.

I'm not even in the back door yet, I'm asked at the back door...

"Where's your interview at today?"

....

**** it! Fashion isn't for me I guess.

....

I grabbed some boat shoes last weekend at Payless on a buy one get one sale. $35

And I'll pick up some more jeans at WalMart soon.

LOL!

Remind me to never bother trying that again. I can rock the only suit in my closet at funerals, and the blue blazer and a white oxford at weddings.

The fashion girl hasn't called back for a follow up order. I think she had a hell of a time finding anything casual enough and once she found out I wasn't going to take a pair of chinos to a tailor, I'm persona non grata in the fashionista world now, I suppose. Hahaha.

 

[cowman]

When I was a kid in gradeschool I had some other kids make fun of me for not wearing clothes that were in style. I had no idea what was in style or where they were getting their approved clothing lists from... but then I realized the caliber of intelligence the kids ripping on me had and decided it just wasn't anything I wanted to be a part of.

Never looked back. I dress up as required for certain formal occasions... weddings, funerals, and job interviews essentially. That's it.

 

[warthog1984]

Not seeing the issue- you apparently got a few pieces you liked and looked sharp enough for someone to comment positively on it. Sounds like a win.

 

[Geico266]

When I was a kid in gradeschool I had some other kids make fun of me for not wearing clothes that were in style. I had no idea what was in style or where they were getting their approved clothing lists from... but then I realized the caliber of intelligence the kids ripping on me had and decided it just wasn't anything I wanted to be a part of.

Never looked back. I dress up as required for certain formal occasions... weddings, funerals, and job interviews essentially. That's it.

You are Cowman. Why would you care?

 

[eman1200]

Ripped jeans and a ratty-looking T-shirt for me. But it is nice to occasionally look decent. As for "fashion", I don't know jack.

 

[Everskyward]

You live in Colorado. I don't think even upper execs get into that business fashion thing unless it's their preference to begin with.

 

[gkainz]

Fashion is a crock of crap industry trying to guilt you into buying the latest stupid stuff some preppy designed and called "cool".

 

[timwinters]

I don't think it has anything to do with "fashion" or "designer", Nate but rather that you showed up in clothes totally out of character for you.

As an aside, I can't imagine shopping for clothes or shoes online. Hell, I can never find stuff that fits me when it's right there in front of me and I'm trying it on!

You found this out apparently...

 

[flyingron]

I got invited to a dinner for a foundation my father was chairman of the board and I had participated with. I got one email telling me that it was "business attire." About an hour later I got another that says "That's lawyer business attire, not software engineer business attire."

 

[geneseib]

Thinking I should add at least a couple of nicer pieces to my wardrobe at my age, I ordered some "designer" clothes on the internet recently. I got sucked into some article about "age appropriate" dress. Then I realized all I wear is sport/polos and jeans like 98% of the time.

Yeah. Hmm. Wardrobe crisis. Or whatever.

Fashion? What's that?

I never have any wardrobe issues. I'm married.

 

[Mistake Not...]

I'll take the other side of this.

I recently discovered the power of dressing "up". I don't mean dressing up, I mean "up", as in higher than the group you're with. There are levels of dress and it can be a huge boost in influence to be just a bit better dressed than the group you hang with.

DenverPilot, if you got crap for what you wore and it was what you described, it was perfect. Just enough up to be that little bit better but not so much as to look like a try hard.

I wear jeans and a button down shirt for work. But the jeans are $100 and the shirts are $65, slim fit and quality. The shoes are $150 brown leather and work for smart casual or business casual. I look good.

People are influenced by appearance. You can argue all day long they shouldn't be, but they are. Clothes are so easy to upgrade, and no one bothers any more. It's so easy to get that little bit of an edge...

Get in shape. Dress better. Be amazed how people treat you.

 

[Van Johnston]

Pretty much all my wardrobe that is less than a suit and more than t-shirt and gym shorts comes LL Bean now. I can trust their sizes and quality, shop from my La-z-boy, and give my wish list list to the family.

I can't do shoes over the internet yet. Not that brave. More power to those who can; keeps them out of the shoe store when I do have to go I guess.

 

[denverpilot]

You live in Colorado. I don't think even upper execs get into that business fashion thing unless it's their preference to begin with.

LOL. True. Met a few millionaires in polyester western suits and cowboy boots before. The boots were probably some exotic animal. Heh.

I got invited to a dinner for a foundation my father was chairman of the board and I had participated with. I got one email telling me that it was "business attire." About an hour later I got another that says "That's lawyer business attire, not software engineer business attire."

ROFL! Yes!

Part of my brain disconnect is caused by having had a father in Sales, having attended a grade school with a uniform code for about half my grade school years, and having worked in the oil biz in an office in the 80s. All of those required white button down shirts and slacks at a minimum.

We have a software developer who's in a t-shirt, cutoff jean shorts, and flip flops every day. Even in winter, I hear.

Fashion? What's that?

I never have any wardrobe issues. I'm married.

I only kept the second shirt because Karen said it looked good on me. Haha.

People are influenced by appearance. You can argue all day long they shouldn't be, but they are. Clothes are so easy to upgrade, and no one bothers any more. It's so easy to get that little bit of an edge...

Get in shape. Dress better. Be amazed how people treat you.

They are. Luckily I've got enough of a professional reputation and history that no one has cared what I wear for a very long time. They know I'll design and operate and/or fix their techie stuff and save them a lot of headaches and problems. I could probably walk in buck-naked as long as the first words out of my mouth were, "the system is back up, and making money again".

This has led to me pretty much using dressing down as both a way to judge whether or not someone is completely superficial and whether or not they have any idea how much money I've saved or made their friend hosting the party. Ha. And I don't get time to go to many parties. Or host them. When I host them, people could probably show up in anything they want to, as long as they come hungry. My parties are about feeding people. Not looking at people.

Plus I have too many engineer friends I like who dress even worse than I do who I'd never want to feel uncomfortable at my house.

About the only rule is please keep your legs together if you're wearing those shorts "commando" or I'll go find a squirt gun and the loudest class clown and turn them loose on you.

My favorite are IT folks who wear combat boots. I ask them if there's going to be a mountain popping up in the data center today that I missed the memo on. But I do understand their utilitarian mindset. We end up lying on the floor fishing cables out of the raised floor tiles on the one day we wore a white shirt. Always happens. Without fail.

Pretty much all my wardrobe that is less than a suit and more than t-shirt and gym shorts comes LL Bean now. I can trust their sizes and quality, shop from my La-z-boy, and give my wish list list to the family.



I can't do shoes over the internet yet. Not that brave. More power to those who can; keeps them out of the shoe store when I do have to go I guess.

Bean is pretty good for us lazy shoppers. At least we look like we went to a mall. Ha.

For the shoes, Zappos.com. Trust me on this one, you'll never have a single problem. They figured out how to sell shoes on the Internet quite a while ago which includes completely painless returns.

I actually like *subdued* western wear, but that stuff is really hard to find. The city slicker cowboys want loud shirts and giant belt buckles. Best place to get the subdued stuff seems to be western Nebraska and western Kansas. And that's WAY to far to drive for clothes. But my favorite cowboy hat is from a little shop in Nebraska I wandered into when I was there for other reasons and incredibly bored. Beaver pelt, small brimmed, medium brown...

And if I wore THAT to the office... Well there'd be jokes all day about that.

 

[Mason]

Crap.

I haven't worn a tie in years although I have quite a collection. I wear jeans and a polo to work. My boss wears shorts and a Hawaiian style shirt. My favorite shoes are black suede.

If I needed to, I could dust off my 20-year-old blue pinstripe suit, or the charcoal one, and somewhere encased in plastic are some white, blue, and pink dress shirts. Might even be able to find some cufflinks if I tried. My wing tips would no doubt need a shine.

If I needed a tux it would be off to the rental place......

When I retired from the airline, I retired my suits, ties, sport coats, dress shirts, and grew my beard. So far, I haven't found any reason to go back.