2021, Art, Media, Uncategorized, work

Stylistic Differences

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I was looking through a magazine the other day, and I ran across an ad for a Swedish Women’s clothing company. The styles were fanciful, with skirts, tunics, dresses, pants, and sweaters in wild prints and vivid colors that are worn in layers with leggings. The clothes looked really comfortable. I like wearing layers. Wearing such clothes, though, would be a real stylistic change for me.

In the winter I dress pretty low key, in pull over sweaters and cardigans with corduroy pants and sensible shoes. Nothing fancy. I want to be warm and comfortable. In the summer, I just switch to Capri pants and shirts. The only time I dress up is when I have to testify in court. My coworkers always notice and comment “You must be going to court today!”

Changing my clothing style so drastically would excite rather a lot of comment at my work. No one who I know of in town wears anything like the Swedish clothing I saw in the magazine. People might think I was having a crisis in identity. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I think I could possibly venture out with maybe one new, wild, Swedish ensemble. We will see.

How would you describe your style? What is the most outrageous outfit you have ever worn? If you could, how would you change the style of clothing you wear?

108 thoughts on “Stylistic Differences”

  2. Oh God, I’ve got so much to say today, about my sister, and now this! Got plenty to say about style. Steve is groaning now, no, don’t! It’s not as if I don’t ramble on already. If my family starts as well, you’ll all sneak away and start a secret new blog.

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  4. I offer this as a visual aid to Renee’s new look:
    https://www.gudrunsjoden.com/en-us/clothes/show-all-clothes?page=7

    I don’t know if Gudrud Sjoden is the Swedish clothing company whose ad she saw, but this is the one that Robin gets catalogs from, ever since Sjoden had an exhibit at the American Swedish Institute.

    Like Robin, I find the clothing highly visually appealing but in wearing it you would have to be willing to stand out and probably you would need a suitable occasion. As happy, settled introverts, our occasions are few and far between and I don’t think Robin has ever purchased anything from the catalogs.

    Robin does have some interesting clothing, though, including some vintage Japanese short coats she can layer over other things to put together a distinctive look.

    I have nothing like that. My clothing is nondescript to the extreme, befitting someone who mostly strives to proceed anonymously. I couldn’t wear anything equivalently striking as those clothes without it feeling like a costume, absurd and inappropriate.

    I alluded the other day to my urge to sew something for myself. Looking through patterns for men, all of them seem either to be identical in design to clothing I already own or they are costumes of some sort. Obviously I could make a garment interesting by my choice of fabric, but what I would really like to find would be a shirt pattern that was subtly different—perhaps the front closure would be off center or something like that—and then I could also choose some quietly distinctive fabric.

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  5. Believe it or not, I was young, slim and pretty once, with clothes that showed how trendy I was. I cut quite a figure in my polyester bell bottom pants, especially when I wore a psychedelic printed shirt that loosely resembled the cover of the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club album. The year, I think, was 1973.

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      1. That inspires me to ask my sister to post another song. Seriously, I got in one fight in my life, and it wasn’t in a pub, and I was sober. As Jacque says……. no, I can’t say the words, but you know what I mean.

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        1. My sister Jane puts her phone in the cupboard for some reason that she told me, and I’ve forgotten. I think it was something to do with getting unwelcome news in the middle of the night. I realise now, she doesn’t know there’s a mute button you can press, to fix that. God, she’s a menace, I’ve got things to say to her, just one of which is about one of the poems on her blog. How am I supposed to get hold of her?

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        1. Look it up on Wikipedia. John Travolta wore them in Saturday Night Fever. They were polyester pants and loose fitting jackets.

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  6. The mother of one of my fellow high school band members was rather distinctive by always wearing her hair up and completely covered in elaborate scarves and turbans. She was rather hoity-toighty. She often accompanied us on the piano for solo and ensemble contests. On the one occasion she came into the band room with her hair uncovered, one of the trumpet players (who eventually became a band director in Rochester) said rather loudly”Oh, you have hair!” She was rather embarrassed.

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        3. The story about the boy who commented on the hair of the piano accompanist who wore scarves and turbans.

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  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    This has been such a busy week. The friend I work with and I travelled out state Wednesday for a meeting. We had lots of time to talk which was really wonderful. During these conversations she told me that I dress so conservatively that our clients think I am a Republican. HAH!

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  8. Style, huh? I’ll show you style. Looks a bit ridiculous, but old rockers /teddy boys never die. They go out on the street looking ridiculous , and loving it. To their wives ‘ embarrassment.

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  9. an old friend told me 10 years ago he never knew anyone who established their brand at age 16 and stayed there
    i am boring but content
    suit coat, cords or jeans and nice button down fall and winter,
    tommy bahamas version of a hawaiian shirt and shorts in the summer with some allowance for formal occasions or special requirements (rock climbing, warehouse work theater ( i’ll wear a summer suit coat)

    i love fashion and find delight in fabric choices and subtle style variations

    go for it renee

    i read a long time ago that someone one was worried about what people would think of him until he realized that they really don’t think about him that much at all

    make what sticks be quality

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    1. That is true. People with a lot of social anxiety are afraid at all times that people are looking at them and thinking about them. That is true in Middle and High School. After that, tim’s comment is correct. People really don’t think about them that much at all.

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    2. I established my brand at 18 and stayed there. So I haven’t proved your friend wrong. I still loveit, just as I still love many things. But the excitement’s gone, I admit.

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  10. I think the issue for me is whether people would think I am some sort of odd Jungian therapist or psychoanalyst instead of the Dust Bowl Empiricist I truly am.

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        2. You’re getting to know my family. Suddenly. So why not mention now, that the odd one out, Angus, is now called Angelina. Or DID I mention it before? He’s a cross dresser, and has come out some time pretty recently. He really only talks to Jane, and the other Jane, my wife, intermittently gives me a hard time about my neglect of him. I do regret it, but maintain that you need to understand the way things have been over the years. It’s he who has distanced himself, in my opinion. I mean, years ago, he did that classic over-compensating, anti gay thing, to appease Dad, his hero. I’m only human, and didn’t see through it.

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        3. It’s none of my damn business, Fenton, and considering the bias you already have against me, I should probably keep my mouth shut. But I’m venturing here because I see some of the pain of trying to make sense of that eccentric family of yours in some of Jane’s poems, and obviously it’s affecting you as well.

          If Angus now goes by the name Angelina, I’m wondering whether transgender rather than cross dresser may be a more accurate term? And while we’re at it, perhaps the personal pronoun should be she rather than he? Or is Angelina the stage name for a drag queen?

          Either way, if you think you’ve had a hard time accepting and adjusting to who Angus/Angelina is, imagine the struggle that they have gone through.

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        4. PJ, not at all, I take in everything you say, and I’m glad you said it. This thread is long, and it’s now past 6 am your time. This will appear SOMEWHERE on the post, but it will obvious which conversation it’s part of.
          Yes, we’re quite blatantly, a disfunctional family. It’s just the five of us now. We’re very different from the normal run of people, and different from each other. Though of course, like Don and Phil, we have things in common. But the thing that I believe makes me stand out, is that, while the others just do what they do, and it happens to make them “different,” it always seems to me that I’m “different” on purpose. PJ, I’m sorry about that other stuff, but you do seem harsh sometimes. If you have a theory as to why I have to be so publicly different, please share it, because I don’t know the reason.
          Calling Angelina “he” : yes, I suddenly realised I was doing it, but decided to carry on, and clarify later. Jane, to whom he clings, is still calling him “him.” I had already said, well does he want to be a woman, and she said, no he just wants to wear their clothes. As I say, she’s the one who’s saying “he.” I’ll discuss it with her further. I want to support Angelina. I do see it all now. Dad was at least as homophobic as most men of his era, and Angus hero worshipped him, in a way the rest of us certainly do not. I understand what a difficult life he’s had, keeping up this heterosexual front right up until recently. But we just haven’t been part of each other’s lives. Neil and I can laze around with the best of them. But when we work, we work. Neil and I together can move mountains, working and thinking at the same time, understanding each other. I believe you’ll know the expression “short lines,” PJ. I was told it was a Scandinavian saying. With Angus, you won’t get that. Nobody will. For various reasons, he’s the most annoying, unproductive workmate you could not wish for. It’s not laziness. He just can’t figure out that the only way to shift a bucket across a yard, is to pick it up, like now, and take it there. Angelina, I mean.
          He’ll talk endlessly about ways of doing it. He’ll get things off the dump, and build a machine to do it, yes, he knows where to find the parts. Basically, I respect workers. Not talkers.
          I was getting lost here, and went back to what you wrote. “Stage name for a drag queen,” probably pretty accurate, actually. He’s the only one of us who’s wanted to be a performer. Years of singing in the Folk Club, with his nasal voiced, heavily swearing friends (GOD he was so aggravating at home,in his teens).
          At least two attempts at the X Factor, singing in a choir, performing in a musical (!), he’s always at it. He sings in karaoke all round town, and Jane says everyone applauds like crazy, so as not to hurt him. So yes, watch this space, I suppose.
          PJ, the thing is, we’ve all had difficulties, and this between Jane and Dad, is just one of the things she’s faced. The other big one is probably all there in her poems, with which I’ve finally started to become acquainted. The simple answers to my tardiness are firstly, I didn’t like poetry until right now. And secondly, I was terrified of reading her poems and not being impressed. As you see, I didn’t need to worry about that.

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        5. Thanks for your response, Fenton. I don’t really think this blog is the appropriate place to be having this conversation in depth, but I’m happy to “talk” with you in private. I’m on Gmail. First name is margaret, followed by a period and the surname mazzaferro. All lower case. If you can’t get that to work, perhaps you can talk Steve into sending it to you.

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    3. To me they look more like instruments of torture than shoes. I cringe every time I see Kamala Harris in her pantsuit and those stiletto heels when I know full well she’s more comfortable in sneakers. That’s quite the sacrifice to make to live up to other people’s expectations.

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      1. Yes, and I’m sorry to see someone like her doing it, I suppose. Ha ha,wife Jane might seize on that “suppose.” So might you PJ.
        I do my strange clothes rituals, to live up to what I want people’s expectations to be. Or some convoluted thing like that.

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  12. I had a pair of the brightest orangy-red bell bottoms that went with a navy & white bit-flowered shirt with those billowy sleeves. Was only brave enough to wear the set once to a party (and felt totally self-conscious, but then there was weed…), though I wore the two pieces separately with more subdued partners.

    I have some skirts and shoes that I use like a costume, and then some actual folk dance costumes for if we perform somewhere. Otherwise, I’m like many of you – standard pants and shirts of the season, though I do like some bright colors on the shirts.

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  13. Seriously, here in Spain, mostly I wear working clothes, I have done all my life. But everyone here, even at work, wears clean, newish clothes. Dress in bars, at fiestas, etc, ranges from casual to smart casual, in our village suits are rarely worn.
    If I go to a bar, to dinner with my inlaws, or to any fiesta, I wear fifties/sixties style drainpipe Levi’s, laboriously converted by myself, by hand, and winklepicker boots or brothel creepers. I believe those are both English terms, but I can explain them if required. I never wear t-shirts, I haven’t owned one for years. I wear proper shirts, and prefer long sleeves. I like the flash Spanish shirts I see sometimes, but the few I have are poor quality, and now relegated to workwear. Jane keeps forestalling me buy buying stacks of shirts, some of which I like. If I think of an excuse, I’ll happily wear a string tie,but it’s hot here some of the time. Not that that will stop me. Oh, yes, DA haircut.
    I’m basically making a statement about something nobody here knows anything about. But any older, and the occasional not so old, English person, knows what they’re looking at, at a glance. And as a shy person, I love to be an exhibitionist. I don’t buy t-shirts that say “I’m obsessed with my idealised view of the Rock’nRoll era.” I walk it and talk it. Daddyo.

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    1. And, as a snide aside : I don’t wear t-shirts that have the Levi’s logo on them. With inferior, ie, other-brand, jeans. I feel entitled to act superior, having worn Levi’s nearly every day for over fifty years. I haven’t owned or worn another brand in that time.

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      2. Hey, this is good stuff, which I will look at more, later, Things to do right now. But two things: please ignore pictures from later eras, for instance, and especially, of the band Mud, as being representative, in mood alone, of the fifties Teddy Boys.
        Secondly: I’ve always said, concerning the Teds: I love the music, the style, and the dancing. I bitterly regret the negative side, eg the thuggery and racism. And, ironically, the gang mentality, without which the Teds would presumably never have existed. This ephemeral stuff has caused a conflict throughout my life.

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  14. I don’t consider myself a flashy dresser, at all, far from it, but I do own several Gudrun Sjöden tunics, and I love them. Practical, comfortable, good quality clothing that adds a splash of color to my otherwise pretty humdrum existence.

    I find it interesting to note from most of the opinions expressed above, that we seek to be unobtrusive and blend in, yet make a subtle statement of some sort. We also seem to believe that no one thinks about or notices what we wear, and then promptly provide the evidence that not only do we notice, we draw conclusions and make judgements based on those observations.

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    2. PJ, I for one do NOT seek to be unobtrusive and blend in. My biggest regret is that I can’t be in my teens again, and do it all again, but more.

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    1. I was wondering that myself…it’s really too late for the corn; whatever it’s making is already made, so it just needs to mature. Warm weather and a late frost is all it needs now.
      Soybeans might still be filling the last pods coming in late at the top of the plant, but they too just need to mature.
      Worst of all will be if it’s a wet fall because the fields would be muddy and everything becomes a struggle. You can’t imagine the size and weight of these machines. Getting stuck can be a major ordeal.

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  16. I dressed daughter in Hanna Andersson clothes when she was a baby and in the early grades. She eventually asked to have more “normal” looking clothes so she wasn’t so different from her peers.

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  17. I subscribe to Esquire magazine. This week features The Suit. Amazing duds starting at $2000. I have spent $500 for a very nice suit. Thankfully, my sister is a seamstress who let the pants out a bit to accommodate my belly.
    My best suit was a creamy white with pink shirt and tie to match. Shoes to match. At that time I presented a deep tan so the contrast was ideal. Pictures of me with my Lilly White ex wife are rather neat. One of them is my favorite where she is giving me a side-eye curse.

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    1. I’m enjoying the picture that conjures up in my mind’s eye. Would love to see the photo. Ditto for Barb’s outfit with the orange-red bell bottoms.

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      1. Thankfully, most of my own fashion missteps were prior to the advent of the cell phone with the built in camera; for this I’m grateful. It’s cringe-worthy enough just to think about it without any photographic evidence. I’m thinking here specifically of a paper cat dress I wore in 1969 or 1970. Pretty sure I was the only one on campus who had one. Have no recollection of how and where I got my hands on it, but man, I was the cat’s meow, or at least I thought so.

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        2. That’s impressive! It remains to be seen whether anyone will agree that the dress is worth that much but I understand the temptation to take evaluations like that as bonafide. Just a week or so ago, I bought a book for a dollar, intuiting that it might be valuable. The only comparable copy I could find online is being offered for $350.
          But, since it is still online, nobody seems to agree that it is worth that much.

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        6. And, YOU KNOW, I have now said three times, that speil about the leis leisure suit. By the way, I don’t want to know, and don’t care, what it is.

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        8. I’m keenly aware that the fact that something is on sale on ebay or anywhere else, for that matter, doesn’t mean that it’s worth the price, much less that it will, in fact, fetch the asking price. But considering all of the stuff that I have kept, I’m wondering about the fate of the cat dress. It didn’t take up much room, but I honestly don’t remember how or why it was disposed of. I suppose I just didn’t agonize over disposing of a piece of clothing that I had paid all of $12.00 for.

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  20. Dress cannot pass without reference to PHC and the joke show, Tom Bodet.
    My father died when I was out of the country and I told the funeral home to spare no expense in the arrangement.The bill came and I paid it right up. Next month a bill for $50 came up. Next month another bill for $50. Paid that to. Next month another $50. Called. “What are these $50 invoices for?”
    “You said to spare no expense, so I rented your Dad a tux.”

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  22. Teddy boys and rockers. Two separate, British entities. You can’t be both, but I STILL want to be, all these years after they died out. But it’s 2.19 am, I’ve been drinking beer with my wife and her brother and his son, and the subject will crop up again some time.
    But the most outrageous thing I’ve ever worn is the sky blue, touching on turquoise, drape suit I had made a few years ago. Just that bit more, noticeably outrageous than the blue jacket and black drainpipe trousers I had back then. I have never worn it properly, in publc, for these reasons :1. My wife doesn’t want to be seen anywhere near me with that thing on.
    2. I am 70 now. I was over 50 when the suit was made. In my late teens and early twenties, I could approximate a teen rebel very well. I have what I consider to be a fifties face, I have always looked younger than my age, and I’m only telling the simple truth when I say I was really good looking. I looked beautiful in a drape suit. But at 70,it hurts, but I don’t. And I have no intention of coming to terms with it, by the way. And 3, there isn’t much opportunity to wear it really. Back then, in my own country, I didn’t care. I enjoyed stuffing my lifestyle in people’s faces. Here, I want to be myself, but I also want to fit in, and noot be seen as a typical expat, whatever that is. You might well say, but how will someone who apparently works at being completely untypical anything, be worried about appearing typical? Good point, perhaps I’ll work on all this.

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      1. You mean she goes somewhere and PAYS for stuff? I hang out right next to the dumpster and get it for free. (Exaggerating. Slightly.)

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  25. Sorry I’m late on this but it’s fair week. The best thing about pandemic for me is that sweatpants sweatshirts T-shirts jersey shorts – they’ve basically been my wardrobe for almost 2 years now. It’s going to be really hard to go back to the office. I wore nice khaki shorts, a nice shirt and earrings to the fair and that’s WAY dressed up for me these days.

    I think the most outrageous thing I’ve worn was the T-shirt I had in college that had two fried eggs on the front (exactly where you would think fried eggs would be on the front of a T-shirt). I wore this more at home then I did it college because I knew it drove my father insane. But he was so outspoken about not believing in censorship that he could never bring himself to say “don’t wear that in the house.”

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