Thinking About: Clothes & Fashion

No one would ever describe me as a follower of fashion, fashionable or a ‘clothes horse’. Actually I alternate between loathing fashion and finding it frankly hilarious. About the only time I remember falling for the hype was back in the day when my Mother still bought my clothes for me. I saw a pair of platform shoes on sale and begged her to buy them for me – despite already being one of the tallest in my year at school – and surprisingly she gave in. I honestly loved those shoes and wore them to death. Ironically they almost put me in hospital when I accidentally caught a heel in the turn up of my flared trousers at the top of a flight of stairs only catching myself just in time before I ended up a heap of broken bones at the bottom. Needless to say I got no sympathy from anyone around me. Also needless to say I still loved and still wore those shoes until they practically fell off my feet.

When I got my first job back in the 1980’s I treated myself to two items that my Mother would never buy me in my teens – a denim jacket and a leather ‘bikers’ jacket. The denim I similarly wore to death – though it never tried to kill me in the same way the shoes had. Once it had gone well past its use by date I persuaded my Mother to resurrect it with a few patches recovered from various pairs of dead jeans and a heavy duty sowing machine. The leather jacket still hangs in my wardrobe and I probably wear it a few days a year. It looks pretty much as it did almost 30 years ago though I guess the coolness factor decreases in direct proportion to my advancing age.

These days, long after abandoning wearing suits to work, the most important thing for me in comfort – especially in shoes. I do a lot of walking anyway – never having learnt to drive – and my present job often gets me away from my desk meeting people and fixing their problems. Whenever anyone new starts (I am presently the senior member of the team) the first advice I give them is wear sensible shoes because if they don’t they’ll certainly regret it. I gave up wearing jeans some time ago but don’t exactly know why. It was probably during a particularly wet winter or a particularly hot summer when jeans are not exactly the best thing to walk around in. So I started wearing less heavy and hard to dry fabrics – comfort again. I do tend to buy the same thing over and over again. Once I find something that works for me I stick with it. That goes for cut, style, colour, manufacturer or shop. I am very much a creature of habit when it comes to clothes – indeed it causes much amusement at work when I arrive in new shoes or new trousers that are essentially the same as their predecessors.

Colour is important to me. There are colours I prefer and those I would never wear – yellow for instance. By far my favourite colour is blue and I used to spend months looking for trainers in a particular shade. It used to send me quite mad when my favourite manufacturer changed their colour palette. That’s one reason why I’ve been known to buy multiple sets of shoes (or trousers to name two things) when I see something I like. Sales are another thing that will prompt me to buy in bulk. Not that long ago a ‘sports’ shop was closing down in my local Mall and had walking shoes (as opposed to standard dress shoes) at 75% off. So I bought three pairs. The only reason I didn’t buy any more was that they only had three in my size. If they’d had ten I probably would have bought ten.

Funnily though I generally have two pairs of shoes at a maximum and this only tends to happen as I’m transitioning from a dying pair to a new one. I tend to wear everything I own to destruction so even though I recently picked up a shoe replacement there’s still quite a bit of wear in my old pair especially with summer and dry weather just around the corner.

I will be the first to admit that, especially at weekends or holidays, I’m generally rather scruffy as things go. As long as I’m decent, warm enough (or cool enough) and comfortable I don’t really care what I look like. It’s just, as far as I’m concerned, of little importance. If people want to judge me on that then it’s their mistake and their loss. I’m certainly not going to be fashionable to please others and to fit in with the rest of the herd. That’s so not me.