Thursday, April 07, 2005

On a subject I know nothing about...

I asked Elise why women's fashion for spring and summer is so superior to men's. "Because we have to give birth." She replied with an obvious smirk. So there you have it, men's fashion does suck for the summer, but at least there is a divine reason why.

I am very happy to see that blazers are in for summer. At least that provides some variety to the usual blandness of light cotton shirts and khakis. I am not pleased, however, that non-pleated khakis are in. It looks European, and anything European must be bad. Abercrombie is trying to have its models wear as little as possible (and who needs to wear clothes in a nudist colony) and Gap is pushing the Cape Cod WASP, testament to my frustration.

Women however always have it good (save childbirth). JCrew seems to have some nice dresses (maybe a cardigan would make them tsanua?) and I do like jackets of all shapes and colors (on women- not men). Anthropologie always has smashing things to look at (never to buy, way too much money- but great ideas). And it looks like Abercrombie even has some nice ideas for tops. Over a t-shirt they too could be tsanua. I am also partial to floral prints, so long as they are not too bold. But the burning questions is: Why pants? In the winter I get it. It is too cold to wear clothing with no bottom, but even in the fashion dimension, things are not as bright and flowey. In the spring and summer though why not shirts? Pants tend to look so pedestrian, and it is very often difficult to cut right, just avoid the whole mess all together.

One trend I have seen that I utterly despise is the large old lady glasses. They look ugly and stupid and should be avoided at all costs.

As the title of this post suggests, I am an idiot when it comes to these things, but I am surrounded by people with supremely good taste (e.g. all these websites come from catalogs my sister orders). I try and that's what counts (unlike those so-and-sos down in midtown).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, it's very much not clear to me what you problem is with pants. A nice pair can be positively dashing. Even sans pleats (Cap Cod, he he he, I'm glad I'm not the only skilled typist).

I personally think that spring and fall are the two best seasons of clothing. You have the most flexibility and can dress to flatter.

though really I could sum up the best idea in warm weather fashion with two words:

Linen

Silk

and that said, I have a recommendation for you: find yourself a pair of dark chocolate linen slacks, flat front, straight cut. No belt. Get an off white Guayabera (it's a kind of shirt) and rock out with you panama hat.

Zev said...

I am so outranked, it is not even funny.

I do really like linen as well, but men’s clothes tend to employ the fabric in really boring styles, e.g. plain white shirts. While everyone should own a white linen shirt, isn't there anything else designers can do with the magical fabric?

I guess I associate pants without pleats to marching bands and military attire, which I have always found dorky looking.

Anonymous said...

There is a lot more being done with shirts than jsut plain white, albeit not as interesting as women's clothing, it is still possible to look pretty darn sharp.

let me know when you want to go and we'll do some clothes shopping for you. Now that I'm working in the mall again (sigh) I'll keep an eye out for stuff that will suit you.

Zev said...

Oh, be nice. (Simpsons reference for all of you folks out there)

Anonymous said...

Batya's just bitter that she doesn't have any clothing that I've picked out...yet.