There is a Wyndham hotel right across the street from the Lima International Airport. Although Lima is a gigantic city of 11 million, it is just a quick stopover for many tourists who are on their way to the interior of the country to see Machu Picchu. In fact, the Wyndham does a very brisk business for those arriving from the States at 12:30 and 1 a.m. in the morning, who then turn around to depart the next morning for Cusco and other cities farther south and east. At 1:30 a.m. the front and bell desks are fully staffed!
There might be folks staying at the hotel who are NOT heading off to hike in the mountains, but you can’t tell by looking at them. Everywhere you look the view is khakis and backpacks. At breakfast (which opens at 4 a.m.), even families are all dressed in khaki and even the smallest kids have backpacks (although you see more red and pink backpacks at this age). Hiking boots and sturdy shoes always round out the ensembles.
It is such a ubiquitous outfit that our last morning in Cusco, I was startled (yes, startled) to see a group of five women at breakfast in extremely fashionable clothing. Tight leather-ish pants, a lacey red blouse and the little short black jacket of one woman definitely caught my eye. And shiny red heels that were so high that if I were to wear them, I would have to super glue my feet onto them to keep from slipping right off. She and the other four women looked lovely and very stylish, but definitely not in keeping with the khaki and backpack set!
What item in your closet do you wear the most?
Trail Baboon 
I wear corduroy pants most of the time. I have several skirts that I wear occasionally, mainly when I have to testify in court as an expert witness. I like to be comforted at work, so cords and sweaters are my uniform in the winter. I wear capri pants in the summer.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I like to be comfortable at work! I suppose I would like to be comforted as well, but that is seldom necessary.
LikeLike
An expert in a skirt is more believable than the same expert in pants?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. Women get that a lot.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Women experts are also expected to crawl around on the floor in a skirt to do play therapy. Until the ‘70s, female teachers were expected to wear skirts while on playground duty, in the winter. No one cared if they got frost bite, only that they had a skirt/dress on.
Don’t even get me started on high heels. I do remember Timmie’s mother in “Lassie”, tottering across the rocks and sand in high heels and a dress, with a tray of coffee and sandwiches for the men who were rescuing somebody who fell in the well.
Barbara Stanwyck rebelliously wore pants and cowboy boots in the Cowboy Drama, “The Big Valley.” I would have loved to see Ben Cartwright running around the Ponderosa in a dress.
LikeLiked by 4 people
ben had nice legs
LikeLiked by 3 people
I remember Barbara Stanwyck in Big Valley wearing culottes quite a bit. They looked great on her but I’m thinking at the time they were probably daring.
LikeLiked by 1 person
she was 80
her fashion statement was not kate hepburnish
LikeLike
Rise and Get Dressed, Baboons,
During this period of knee surgery recovery, my favorite clothing is yoga pants. They do not irritate the scar on my knee and still are warm enough. Yoga pants replaced replaced the former favorite, blue jeans and denim, during this period.
I have knit denim, denim jackets, skirts, and shorts. I do not have any denim shoes at this time, but I have in the past. I do still have a pair of my denim hippie pants with patches on the derrière. I think my early attachment to denim in the hippie days and the late 60’s, just will never allow me to move on.
LikeLiked by 2 people
i need to go through my closet and my stuff.
we just got back from our trip where i took
blue jeans black jeans and tan cords a sports coat with holiday flavor and another with the neutral tweedy feel i often go with 4 shirts and 3 each socks and underwear. years ago i read the accidental tourist by ann tyler and the main character figured out how to travel with stuff you can wash on your body in the shower then hang dry to wear 2 days from now when they’ve dried
my life on ebay leaves me with a close at my warehouse of thousands of items . i used to covet my blue cashmere blazer as a crossover that went well with jeans and at formal callings today i have many jackets suits top coats rain coats and pants shirts shoes and accessories more than i can mention
i have been a khaki and sports coat kind of guy with boots or birkies forever
my kids comment as my fashion mode comes into style
rolled up jeans a flannel shirt and a sports coat they call urban lumberjack these days and it often comes with a stocking cap. i am a fedora kind of guy with two or three i hang onto and the rest i rotate. i had my 40’s borsalino in europe and it fits
LikeLiked by 2 people
Fun – I’d forgotten about that bit from The Accidental Tourist…
LikeLike
Morning!
I have one pair of black denim pants, four or five pair of blue jeans and two pair of tan colored, denim? Cotton? Pants. Almost all have some paint spatter on them because I’m a messy painter. I can’t open a can with out getting paint on myself.
I have lots of shirts (100% Cotton and 2 pockets), button up, and 1/2 are with out sleeves or have modified shortened sleeves.
There are some red and some dark green that I’ve work so often the material in the neck is worn through.
Our local paper features a person and their “fashion” once / week. A former student nominated me for that once. I turned it down but it made me laugh.
They say ‘dress for the job you want’ and I sit here with dirty pants, paint stained shirt, shoes with chicken manure stuck to the bottom, and I think “I have the job I want” so there.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Henry Thoreau wrote, “Beware of enterprises that require you to buy new clothes.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
Several years back I had a handful of friends who are still working at Target and I remember the day that Target decided they were going to go back to business attire; for many years they had been business casual. And the reason I remember the day is because all of my friends who were working at Target sent me messages or called me whining about this; most of them had to go out and buy business attire after all that time. That might’ve been a dealbreaker for me if I’d been there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s got to the point that whenever I wear a skirt to work, my colleagues say “Going to court?”.
LikeLiked by 4 people
If I wear a skirt, someone will say “Oh, she’s got legs!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve mentioned that for years I wore nothing but sweatsuits. Then I decided to be a social person, so now my dress up pants are blue jeans and I have two go-to-dinner shirts, the blue one and the brown one. Woo hoo! Socks are easy. Like Henry Ford’s cars, all my socks are black.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Husband got new black Frye boots in New York. This meant he had to have just the right tall black socks for just the right feel in the boots. He is very fussy about his socks. He has too many socks to begin with. Most of them are black. He got 4 pairs of thin wool socks for the boots that he insists we cannot put in the dryer. Since I am the one who does the laundry, I now must increase my vigilance so that I don’t dry the new socks, and some how discern which are the new ones and which are the ones that can get dried. At least he folds and puts away the laundry.
LikeLike
Maybe he can be trained to put these special socks aside and wash them out by hand. (But I wouldn’t hold my breath.)
LikeLike
Husbands take training about as well as cats do.
LikeLiked by 2 people
sox is my go to for pressure release
jeans shirt coat every every every day
six with a flair can do this
think fred astaire and gene kelly in every movie during the 50’s
purple, yellow, red and neon turquoise make a smile come to my face multiple times a day
simple secret smile
LikeLiked by 2 people
I have way too many socks. A large large drawer full of them. For many years it was also a go to gift for YA and now I’m overloaded. But I do have a nice collection of holiday socks so I can wear red and green or Santa or snowmen every day in December and not even have to wash socks.
LikeLike
Perhaps the socks go with the rainbow display of flip flops? Oh, wait. That cannot work, can it.
LikeLike
No holiday socks with flip-flops however I am known for socks with my Birkenstocks sandals
LikeLike
i need to go through my closet and my stuff.
we just got back from our trip where i took
blue jeans black jeans and tan cords a sports coat with holiday flavor and another with the neutral tweedy feel i often go with 4 shirts and 3 each socks and underwear. years ago i read the accidental tourist by ann tyler and the main character figured out how to travel with stuff you can wash on your body in the shower then hang dry to wear 2 days from now when they’ve dried
my life on ebay leaves me with a close at my warehouse of thousands of items . i used to covet my blue cashmere blazer as a crossover that went well with jeans and at formal callings today i have many jackets suits top coats rain coats and pants shirts shoes and accessories more than i can mention
i have been a khaki and sports coat kind of guy with boots or birkies forever
my kids comment as my fashion mode comes into style
rolled up jeans a flannel shirt and a sports coat they call urban lumberjack these days and it often comes with a stocking cap. i am a fedora kind of guy with two or three i hang onto and the rest i rotate. i had my 40’s borsalino in europe and it fits so well even in heavy gusts up to 40 mph it mostly stayed on (blew off twice but they really were 40 mph and when you come around a corner it’s to be expected)
i wear a sports coat almost every day (it was pointed out recently) jeans cords or khakis, shirt and shoes are on a rotating bare with heavy dose of non discript
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re so darn stylish in a hat, tim, you can wear anything and look dressed up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
i have gotten attached to certain articles of clothing over the years
peter max flag shirt from 60’s is a keeper but other than that it can all be replaced
i love this jacket or that but honestly i’m easy, i love material and fabric so i can find a new favorite in 3 minutes on any goodwill rack if my wardrobe is needing modification and i’m in a situation where my home or warehouse is an inconvienient drive away
doesn’t happen often but always an option
sorry about multiple partial posts
i e had a bunch wiped
out and not posted after typing g for a while so i am hitting send then adding the closing thought in a later post that rechews the first half as a side issue
nice to be back
LikeLiked by 2 people
I also have too many socks, but I love matching them with what I’m wearing. Keep them in a rectangular basket on the dresser, folded and on end such that I can see them all at once.. my own version of Marie Kondo.
Favorite clothing item (winter) is an icy blue loose turtleneck, and it’s not even natural fibers – some acrylic. Warm, comfy, goes with most pants, can be layered in coldest weather. Been mended multiple times, still has a not-very-noticable spot on it, but oh well.
LikeLike
I can’t imagine making it through a winter day without my fleece lined leggings. Have no idea how I ever survived before I discovered them.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Where do you get those?
LikeLike
I got some at Costco and some at Aldi.
LikeLike
thanks for mentioning the fleece lined leggings
good small gifts
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a handful of shirts from JPeterman. I like them very much but unfortunately just last week one had to go into the rag bag as it had a rip that could not be repaired. And of course the rip was caused because the fabric was so worn out in a couple of places.
LikeLiked by 1 person