FASHION TO DIE FOR: I\u2019m the kind of guy who lives in his head most of the time. But for better or for worse, I\u2019m not completely immune to the whims of fashion. I\u2019ve worn glasses for most of my life, and I very much like the round ones or the plain square ones. But to keep up with fashion, my current glasses are thin rectangles. It\u2019s just where the fashion is these days. In another five years, who know?<\/p>\n
(Some stuff I do hold out on. Like three button suits and jackets. Sorry, but I\u2019m sticking with two buttons. I just like the look of two button jackets better.)<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve talked a bit here about the elderly women (over 60) who sit near my desk at work. Since I\u2019m pretty far down on the pecking order, I get to sit in the \u201csteno pool\u201d; I guess I really didn\u2019t belong anywhere so they stuck me with the \u201cold girls\u201d in the steno pool. Anyway, one of my office mates is extremely fashion conscious, noticeably more so than the others. She\u2019s frequently on the phone ordering new clothes during work time (but yea, I goof around a lot too, surfing the web quite a bit). Thankfully, she does appreciate the fact that she\u2019s \u201ca woman of a certain age\u201d; she strives more for elegance than for revealing flesh. <\/p>\n
But during the summer, my office mate decided to catch up with the current preference among younger woman for fashionable sandals (I believe they call them \u201cslides\u201d). Unfortunately, she paid a price for it. One Monday she came in with a nasty little bruise on her face. Being the vocal extrovert that she is (with a very loud voice to match), I heard the story of what happened, more than once again that day. She and her boyfriend went to a wedding reception, and she was trying out a new pair of formal sandals. As part of the architectural fashion at the catering hall, the plaza in front of the main entrance was paved with something like cobblestones or brick. So, of course, her heel got caught. With the total lack of ankle support that such shoes provide, down she went. She wasn\u2019t badly hurt, though, and she managed to joke about the fact that she hadn\u2019t even had her first drink yet. After that, it was back to more age-appropriate shoes for her.<\/p>\n
What was more ironic was that my office mate recently lost her mother. On the face of it, her mother died from a stroke at the age of 90. But the story turned out to be a bit more involved than that. I know that I should mind my own business at work; but again, my office mate has a very loud voice and spends much of the day talking about her life with anyone who will listen; it would be almost impossible for me (and anyone else who spends time within earshot of my desk) NOT to know more than you want to know about her.<\/p>\n
Anyway, my office mate often talked of her mother; it soon became quite apparent where my office mate got her fashion sense. Even though her mom had recently joined the \u201cninetegarian club\u201d, she was still independent and active. She went thru the motions of primping herself any time she had to leave her home; fixing her hair, putting on lipstick and makeup, selecting stylish outerwear; no jogging suits for her. Unfortunately, she recently made a trip to a local supermarket in a pair of formal shoes; they may have been quite sensible for a thirty year old, but weren\u2019t what a ninety year old woman should have been wearing. She was pushing a cart across the parking lot, and one of the wheels hit a rut in the pavement. The unexpected resistance threw her off balance, and she couldn\u2019t regain her step; down she went, landing head-first. <\/p>\n
My office mate first indicated that her mother received a bump on her head, but was generally all right. But then the mother was taken to the hospital after having speech and vision problems, and had to have an operation to drain fluid pressure in the brain. But even then, she seemed on the path to full recovery, being quickly placed in a rehabilitation center. My office mate reported that her mother was demanding lipstick and hairspray at the center, a hopeful sign. But the aging body houses a thousand ironies, and one Friday afternoon the word came in that the mother had died quite suddenly from a stroke. <\/p>\n
So, was this death by fashion? Might my office mate\u2019s mother have still been alive and living a relatively happy life had she used walking shoes with soft and wide soles? Obviously I can\u2019t say for sure. But it is definitely a possibility. So it does make me wonder, what are the goods and bads regarding the social phenomenon of the human species known as dressing ones self according to \u201cfashion\u201d? What are the pros and cons of \u201csocial pressure\u201d, however subtle, to prefer certain ways of outfitting the body, and to avoid certain others? <\/p>\n
There certainly are pros to it all; most \u201cfashion\u201d, admittedly, does have a good look to it. I can think of many exceptions, but most fashionable clothes are like a painting done by a true artist (versus something shlopped together by an untalented nerd like me). Fashion in many ways is art; it is a method by which art finds its way out of the galleries and into the nooks and crannies of our daily life. It is a celebration of the aesthetic of the human body, and of the many colors and textures of nature. It can make you feel better about yourself. Fashion is also an expression of the mood of the times. When things change a lot, fashion also changes a lot. I lived through the late 1960s and I can remember all the crazy fashion innovations when the Baby Boom was coming of age, and sought to distinguish itself from the suburban style of life from the 1950s. But things kept on changing, and what was \u201chip\u201d in 1969 became totally \u201cout\u201d by 1976.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I have some regard for the aesthetic functions of fashion. I feel good about going to work in a decent suit with a nicely matching tie. I like the look, and I know that others like the look. It\u2019s a good thing. But still, when it\u2019s cold, when it rains, when it\u2019s snowy and icy, I want to ditch the suit and the slippery leather-soled shoes (which a vegetarian like me shouldn\u2019t be wearing anyway; more and more of my shoes these days are cheap-o leatherless specials from PayLess). The fashion feeling fades quickly for me when the world turns nasty. Which it so often does.<\/p>\n
As to the second part of fashion, \u201cmood of the times\u201d, I don\u2019t have much time for that. Very often I disagree with what the herd is thinking; in fact, my general rule is to distrust any notion or thing that seems right to a majority of the public (case in point: George W. Bush). But yes, I am not immune to public opinion. So if bowties become hot next year, I\u2019ll probably put a few bowties into my wardrobe (actually I have some bowties and I rather like them; they seem to make more sense than having a long tie hanging from your neck to your belly. But I never get around to wearing them, because no one else does).<\/p>\n
Well, I guess we all strike a different balance between fashion and practicality, between worrying about how others view us versus how comfortable and warm (and safe) we are. I appreciate what a complex issue fashion is, especially for women. Personally, I have much regard for \u201cdifferent drummers\u201d and those who march to them. But admittedly I do think that women sometimes look pretty in clothes that must obviously be uncomfortable. The ultimate point here is that everyone should reflect on the presence of fashion and decide for themselves how to settle with it. For too many people, fashion and its demands are like water is to a fish; you don\u2019t think about it, you take it for granted, you go with its flow. Just a little more breathing room between ourselves and the strong currents of fashion is what we all probably need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FASHION TO DIE FOR: I\u2019m the kind of guy who lives in his head most of the time. But for better or for worse, I\u2019m not completely immune to the whims of fashion. I\u2019ve worn glasses for most of my life, and I very much like the round ones or the plain square ones. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}