Questioning Fashion

For the sake of doing something productive, I accompanied some people who were part of a wedding entourage for garment fitting. The wedding is still months away, but they seem to be rushing preparations. I’m not particularly fond of weddings, but I agreed to go with them because I had nothing else to do, and I probably won’t be able to attend the wedding if I’m back to work by then. hehe. I don’t hate weddings--- I’m just not fond of them. Partly because every wedding I attend to, especially weddings of peers, reminds me that I’m already in the marrying age. Another reason: marriage is not part of plans in the near future. I’d probably get married when I’m 35, when residency and fellowship is over... when I'm already (hopefully) financially stable. And there’s still so much I want to do… places i want to go to... things I want to learn... stuff that I may not be able to do once I settle down. So unless I accidentally impregnate someone, marriage is out of the question for now.

Since I had no interest in the preparations that they were doing, I just browsed some magazines… which were mostly about weddings, plus a number of fashion magazines. Nothing interesting, so I just breezed through them. I had nothing else to do, so just to start some conversation, I made some small talk. Two of the people there were fashion designers, the older one was quite famous--- I actually knew who he was. The younger one probably was his apprentice, who supposedly won some regional fashion designing competition. Out of the blue, I asked the younger one if I could ask him questions about fashion. He said "sure."

“Er... I've been wondering about my taste in clothes... like what I'm wearing now... what do you think of my shirt?” I asked hesitantly.

“It fits your form perfectly. Though it would be better to avoid the logo tees and go for abstract designs.”

Abstract designs. Got that. Then I asked, “are my pants ok?”

“straight leg jeans never go out of style.” He said with a smile.

“Do you think I should wear those slim fit jeans that seem to be the in thing these days? Some friends have been insisting that I should wear those, but I’ve tried fitting them one time, and it felt uncomfortable. My thighs looked like Hungarian sausages, and the girl I was with laughed out loud when I turned around. The fabric was hugging my ass very tightly, it was really embarrassing.”

He laughed. “Slim fit jeans aren’t for everyone. You shouldn’t wear them if they don’t look good on you. And you should never wear something uncomfortable for the sake of being fashionable.”

Ah, my thoughts exactly. “Um... what about my shoes?”

“you mean besides the fact that they look dirty?”

“haha. Yeah. Do they look tacky? Ugly? Out of style?”

“not really. They look okay. Just clean them.”

Then the older fashion designer guy, who was apparently listening to our conversation, spoke. “Let me guess, you’ve been taking fashion advice from self proclaimed fashion gurus… either your girlfriend or gay friends? Am I correct?”, he said smugly.

I laughed again, and then said, “the latter.”

He answered “It’s alright to take fashion advice from gay men every now and then, especially since most men don’t have a clue about fashion… but don’t let them take full control. Straight men and gay men have different tastes. If you heed every advice they make, sooner or later you’re going to look like a gay man yourself.”

I laughed as I realized the truth that he spoke, which wasn’t really all that funny.