Fashion Cents Randomness

I pay a lot of attention to fashion but I don’t always buy or wear the right thing for the right occasion or the right combination of items. I am fashion-savvy enough to know I shouldn’t try to dress like a 20-year old but I also don’t want to dress like my age or anything close to it. That disparate combination equals frustration at the mall.

Here are some random observations and thoughts from my shopping trip to a local outlet mall yesterday:

- I am a fairly focused shopper. I usually know what I want before I walk in the store; sometimes I walk in with a written list. Halfway through my list I get hit with decision stress and leave.

- I know my sizes and I have a clear picture of what is already in my closet. Contradicting that, however, I also tend to buy and wear many of the same colors and sometimes I forget I already have that exact same shirt in that exact same color.

- Jeans are great but I like pockets (geez, I’m turning into my Dad), so I wear cargo pants a lot.

- Eddie Bauer, Dockers and Reebok should hire me to be their spokesman. I have more of those three brands in my closet than any others.

- The old fashion strategy that says people respect you more at work if you’re more dressed up seems to be true even at my extremely casual work place. But if I dress up too much, I look like the sales people and if I dress too casually, I lose a bit of that respect edge – not completely but there is a different attitude based on clothing. My very casual boss just got a promotion and she is already dressing more like someone further up the management ladder. Same thing for her boss.

- I have every shade of khaki there is (Dad again?). I laugh at myself when I replace worn out khaki chinos with exactly the same thing. I also have plenty of olive. I need another color, don’t I?

- My closet is adult grrranimals. Everything goes with everything. That is intentional and maybe a little boring.

- The outlet mall was packed yesterday, even though everything except the food court has exterior entrances and the temperature was 98.

- My list included some specific shirts, pants and shoes. I got most of my shirts and no pants or shoes.

- I’m looking for a new look for work but I am undecided about what it should be.

- If any Asian country is searching for a few hundred missing teen-agers, try the outlet mall in Hagerstown, Maryland. I think they were all there yesterday.

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