Here's a tidbit you all probably already know: I am not an especially fashionable guy.
Long post, gettou!
Jeans/cargos and t-shirt are my usual off-work fare, maybe topped with a sweater or hoodie or something. If I wanna look a little more respectable, maybe I throw an unbuttoned collared shirt over the t-shirt. If I want to go a further step more respectable, I have maybe one, maybe two collared shirts (that aren't straight up dress shirts) that I like to wear.
My favourite jacket is this almost 10 year old brown leather jacket that's extremely weathered and worn (Kansas-types, you've probably seen this jacket). Aside from a few other random jackets, the only thing I have before jumping to blazers and suits is a 3/4 wool coat I only got about a year or two ago (which I also love, to be sure).
Oh, and I currently style my hair because of a male protagonist from a recent Disney film. Hair before then was similar, but yeah. It ain't that trendy.
So that said . . . I still clean up well enough and am quite willing to clean up well if I need to. Somewhat nicer clothes may not be something I wear a lot of, but to be kinda frank, I don't really go out that much to places that need it. I just don't really have a lot of "upper-mid" level clothes because I've never needed to get it.
Funny enough, I have like, 3 or 4 different suits and a freakin' tuxedo. I'm kind of an all-or-nothing kind of dresser. I really do need more mid-level clothes . . .
So THAT said . . .
Last Friday, Remembrance Day, stat' holiday, I went out shopping with the childrens for clubbing clothes. Again, I'm REALLY not a big fan of clubbing - drinking and dancing, fine, but quite frankly, as a single guy, that's not the implied goal of clubbing and it's hard to ignore the picking up girls side of it when you're quite plainly terrible at it. In any case, buddy from Seattle's coming up for his birthday, and we've accepted that it will be hilarious to see that boy in a club.
'sides, there'll be decent company there anyway. I can deal with that.
So I need some new clothes. Maybe a new shirt, some dark jeans (something I've curiously gone without all this time), and we'll see what else.
And sure, it was essentially "dress up James" day, and I was definitely out of my comfort zone trying on clothes I usually don't get, and being in a CROWDED mall feeling very out of place, and spending most of the time in that "guy haze while the girls shop" . . .
. . . but that's fine. Besides being a good sport, I really don't have a problem getting a few new options for when I go out. And let's face it, I'm not going to have a good eye for what's good or not, and I greatly appreciated being able to come out, let the other girls take a look and decide "the shoulders are good but the waist is too wide" or "yes, those ones definitely make your butt look good".
When the hell am I ever gonna know if a pair of pants make my butt look good?
And I guess that's another side of me that always, always seems to catch people off guard. Just because I don't do something often doesn't mean I don't like doing it (or as the case may be, that I don't dislike doing it).
So fine, whatever. In the end I left the mall with a green/blue plaid shirt, a pair of dark jeans (that I'll need to hem), and a grey cardigan. About $160 in all, more than what I usually spend on a Friday, but whatever. Just means I don't buy Battlefield 3 for a little while longer or something.
So why bother blogging about this?
Welp, one friend who had come out to shop as well was apparently very critical of the whole outing. And he let one of the girls know how he felt quite strongly. Felt the girls knew I wasn't completely comfortable with the whole thing, and that it "represented that {she/they} wanted to totally change who {I was}."
Poor girl was kinda really devastated the other night with this on her mind - felt really apologetic and terrible about it all suddenly. That kinda really pissed me off.
One, you don't totally change who someone is with a SINGLE new set of clothes. If someone changes that easily, then they really have bigger problems.
Two, I'm not going to drop $160 on something I DON'T want to get. I can't afford to be swayed that easily by people.
Actually, going along with number two, I have two points to make. The first is that the girls actually felt I looked better in the slim jeans, that they "made my legs look longer". Probably true, and I probably did look good in them. But, I have decided that I really, really don't like the feel of slim jeans. Pants that take that much effort to put on and take off? Mm, nah, gonna say no - really, the best explanation they put forth was that "it's not worth it if you're not going to wear it much afterward." So I went with their 2nd pick.
The second point . . . is that I will admit there was one person there who maybe had a bit more clout in terms of opinion. She has, in the past, convinced me to take a computer science course, ease up on my discrimination of mainland Chinese, and shave my legs for cosplay.
And out during that shopping trip, she was useless. Completely unhelpful in what looked good or bad. She was pretty much there to propose the idea of going out in the first place and to be entertained by it all. So yeah, useless.
Point I'm trying to make with this?
I trust my friends in this kind of stuff, whether they be those girls, kiddo, or whoever. They know who I am, they know what kind of stuff I like to wear. They weren't just picking out clothes they thought looked nice; they were picking clothes they thought I would like.
And I'm okay with that. And before they stir up more needless shit, some people really need to get that I'm okay with that.
