labels

I’ve heard of growing out of your clothes but growing in?

You would think it would be a nice problem to have until you get caught short one Friday night and find the pants you were counting on fall to the floor without a belt and even with a belt they look like a tent that got wrangled into giving yeoman service as a garment.  Thankfully blue jeans can pinch hit in most cases.  But not in all cases.

Another article of clothing for the donation pile.  Another trip to the…. mall for me.

(GROAN)

Collective individuality.  A somewhat derisive and cynical term that I picked up in high school but the older I get, the more true it becomes.  I thought we were bad back then with our swatch watches, “stone washed” jeans, and Miami vice pastels.  Today’s youth culture revels in fashion labels and wearing clothes that are nothing more than advertising for the companies.

Kids wander up and down the mall each wearing a slightly different version of the same t-shirt with a tiny variation in color or design.  All of them pretty oblivious to that fact apparently.

I swear that I will never understand the appeal of having a corporate logo or a company name emblazoned on your clothes.  I can understand wearing team colors for your local professional or college team.  But a corporate logo for a company you don’t work for?  How?  How is that fashion or even desirable?

If I wear a suit to an office meeting or a formal event I am not going to have Brooks Brothers in bright red letters on the lapels.  I want it to be a well made garment, to fit me, and to look as nondescript as possible.

I suppose labels are unavoidable in some ways.  Manufacturers want the public to know that their product sells and that large numbers of the general public like to wear that product.

Fine, accepted.

My gripe isn’t with the manufacturers or designers.  They’re just doing their jobs.  It’s with the general public.  Take a hard look at your closet.  Is this what you are?  Are you nothing more than a sale and an advertising space for big companies or are you someone who wants something comfortable and stylish to wear?  And if you just want something comfortable and stylish to wear, why does it have to have a logo on it?

Why must clothing be about showing that you have access to the same clothes that some famous person wears?  Can we instead see clothing as something desirable by the way that it is distinctly individualized to meet your style and comfort needs?

Further if someone does feel this way, can they be lauded rather than ridiculed?