I don’t walk that slowly, but while I was walking home from the bus this afternoon, a man passed me. His too short pants hovered above his ankles, and all the walk home I willed them to descend, even a small fraction so as to touch the top of his socks, if not his shoes. I take the fact that they did not descend as further evidence that there is something very wrong with this world, because I see this man’s pants everywhere. Men at work wear them so high that dew on grass kept twice as long would never get their cuffs wet. Men in town, too, after they graduate from flip-flops, show their shins as if their shins were beautiful. So answer me this: Do legs grow suddenly after 30, or is fashion blindness just an unfortunate genetic anomaly, like not being able to see the red 3?
there is a very tragic side to the slouchification of america… that is, men don’t know how to dress. i refuse to believe that men have never known how to dress. in fact, they always look so well put together in documentary footage of the 20th century. but in recent times, men seem to take not knowing how to dress as a point of pride.
that said, i do think that hem-lines might be on the rise, or were a year or so ago. but, i’m not as much a fasionista as this comment seems to make. (however, i do want to shake one of my colleagues down for never knowing how to combine his shirts and ties… floral print ties with bold stripes! maybe if i could see that three it wouldn’t bother me as much… as it is i only see a reference to g’s getting another day older and deeper in debt)
by Jeremy—Oct 10, 07:56 PM
There is a reason I didn’t put a zero after that 3! :)
by greg—Oct 10, 08:02 PM
Might it be that all the smart dressers in documentary footage are a kind of secondary evidence of the existence of tailors?
by greg—Oct 10, 08:05 PM
Note that the thesis in 3 does not necessarily contradict my thesis about fashion blindness. Hypothetically, a world which relies upon the services of skilled tailors is more or less taking advantage of a transfer of expertise. Individual fashion skills become subject to the eyes of the tailor, who by limiting a man’s wardrobe, ensures its fashionability—or, at the very least, its fittedness.
The fact that 12 year old girls in Malaysia now make most of the clothes Americans wear has a direct effect of making inherent fashion blindness more evident.
by greg—Oct 11, 07:53 AM
I am 38 and my legs did not grow. But I must be color blind because I only see “29” :-(
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
by Bobby Valentine—Oct 11, 11:07 AM
Do not be so hasty to criticize the colorblindness of your own eyes when others’ eyes—or intentions—may be question!
by greg—Oct 11, 12:11 PM
Thank you, Bobby V! I was wondering when someone would say something about that!
by kathy—Oct 11, 12:20 PM
FYI remy said something about it in 1, albeit a little obscurely.
by greg—Oct 11, 12:25 PM
oh yes. i’m paying attention; i swear.
by kathy—Oct 11, 12:29 PM