So When Considering Fashion... #1

So.... on my commute to work today, all seven-tenths of a mile of it, I noticed a SUV pull suddenly out of a parking lot and onto the street right behind me, followed me closely, and then made the turn down another street with me. My mind flashed, "What are those crazies doing," and then my inner monologue screamed, "I hope it isn't What Not to Wear." Now, don't worry, I totally recognize this to be insanity, first for the fact that I thought TLC was stalking me and secondly for the fact that I comment on my inner monologue (which apparently screams occasionally). Don't get me wrong, I don't think I dress poorly enough to get on that show, but I'd totally fake wearing ill-fitting suits, tie dye t-shirts, and parachute pants to have two stylists take me shopping in New York.

Alas, it was neither Stacy nor Clinton. (Don't you think that the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, looks like a buff Clinton Kelly?) Stacy's really kind of hot, though, right? Anyway, I was too consumed with the fact that I only had six minutes before my first appointment to see where the SUV went after I turned into the clinic.

My infatuation with What Not to Wear has faded over the last year. I think mostly because they rarely re-wardrobe men anymore. So, yeah, I like fashion but not really women's fashion. I mean the only fashion show I've ever been to was the one at the fountain in Central Mall in Texarkana. My sister - maybe three years old at the time - was asked to be a model for Little Tots and Teens, a children's clothing store where my mom dropped serious cash for jumpers and dresses and bows back in the late 80's. I really don't even remember Kaitlin walking the "runway;" I just remember the one humiliated boy, wearing pastel "short-alls," whose mom insisted that he do cartwheels down the runway, and him looking like he so totally did not want to be there.

So, I like men's fashion. Well, maybe I just want to look put together. Of course, I wore flip-flops to work today - not sure if that qualifies as "put together." In my defense, the temperature is in the triple digits right now here in sunny, humid Arkansas. I'm sure if Robin Williams wore flip-flops in that stupid Patch Adams movie, everybody would think it was the most creative thing ever. I just get sideways glances from old grannies.

This was so not where I was going with this post. Anyway, sometimes I really would like for a stylist to take me shopping, but stylists probably don't let people shop exclusively at Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Kohls, and Target. But I'm still stylish (mostly) even if I am frugal (sort of). I will say that I thought wearing brown leather loafers, sans socks, with my seersuckers when Rachel and I were in Memphis was totally stylish and cool (of course, I had actually forgotten to pack socks, but none the less, stylish and cool).



So... getting back to the fact that I'm looking to other sources for fashion instruction (since becoming less enamored with TLC's fashion ambush). About a year ago, I happened upon a blog that I really enjoy reading, well, really I just look at the pictures. The Sartorialist, blogged by Scott Schuman, has been selected as one of Time Magazine's Top 100 Design Influencers (no, really the top of the blog says so - maybe I need to put something like that at the top of mine, hmmm). Schuman is a fashion photographer, and he started the blog, posting pics he had taken of people he saw on the streets of NYC who were "fashionable." Now, I don't 'get' all of the fashion choices in his shots, but it is an interesting blog to follow, and he's a great photographer.

All of this to say that, in anti-homage (I guess that's parody) to The Sartorialist, I'm posting my first So When Considering Fashion... entry.

On the Street - Beale Street Chic in Memphis


Her companion was overheard to have said, "Red makes me look good. I look sexy in red. Red makes me look fine. Uhh, that shirt has too much red."