Clothes

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Recently, I was watching a few home movies from about 6 years ago. The video featured my closet, I also saw myself at the time. I remember people telling me at the time that my pants were too high, but I kind of ignored it. In fact, I remember refusing to go get new jeans because I didn't see anything wrong with the legnth of my pants. When I saw how much plaid I had, I thought that I could have guest starred on home improvement as the teenage version of Al Borland (granted, I still think I looked a little better than Al).

In any case, over the years, my taste for clothes has improved, but is still different from most of my counterparts (early college). Sometimes, I make a move to become a little bit closer to what most people look like. If I like it, I will stick with it. If not, I abandon it. For example, just a couple of weeks before graduating high school, a kid made fun of my shoes. I told him that I would get new shoes that night and I did. I love them. I guess my other shoes were okay, but I like these better so I'm glad he said that. Also, until the second semester of my senior year, I NEVER wore shorts. Always jeans. I only wore shorts a few times and people were in shock. They were glad.

As I prepare to begin this school year, I wonder if it is time for more changes. I would never give up being my own person (in fact, a friend of mine heard me say that I was thinking about starting to shop at Abercrombie like everyone else and told me not to because my clothes make me unique and he respects that), I do think that openness to change can be good. Then again, I know someone who wears a pair of black cargo pants, and a black shirt from walmart and has maybe two pair of jeans and a few tshirts and even though he is homeschooled and thus somewhat isolated, he is pretty well liked in our circle of mutual friends.

I guess that part of it is that sometimes people will think that my clothes = not being relaxed. I can't blame all of my social problems on clothes, but it may be a factor. What do you think?

I don't think there is any reason to change what you like, unless the clothing doesn't match the weather and is causing major discomfort or sweating (offensive smells to others). The world can kiss my butt as far as the rest is concerned. There are dress situations where dressing up is required, I generally avoid those.

I used to only wear sweat pants when really young. I didn't, and still don't like the feeling of jeans/denim. It has a dry feeling like chalkboards to me. I eventually went to wearing shorts the entire year (even in winter, I had circulation issues and didn't even notice). I used to wear my socks too high apparently, although I always thought having them crumpled up was sloppy looking. That paragraph was at least me from age 6 to 16.

I've really narrowed my clothing selection down over the recent years. I don't wear anything with logos or words, as I don't want that to be any type of first impersonation against me. There is an entire section of my closet where I keep the clothes I don't wear anymore, the items in rotation are in the middle and more accessible.

Now, I wear cargo-style short pants, and plain t-shirts all the time now. Old Navy carries a variety shirts without tags (about time someone figured that out), in various colors, and I wear plain white undershirts as well. The best shirts are the wicking-style ones I get at REI, they are the lightest and most comfortable and least irritating to me (also without tags).

In general, do what works for you, it might be more narrow/different than everyone else, but that is never a bad thing, in my opinion.

Wear what is comfortable, with at least a minimum regard for what is socially acceptable. By that, I don't mean that you should try to wear what other people think is cool or popular. Be yourself and wear what suits you. That stuff should not and does not really matter unless you are talking about a work environment, or some other place where the dress code is more specific.

In school? Hell. In high school and college, my wardrobe was strictly thrift-store stuff. It was comfortable and cheap. Can't argue with that.

I keep trying to set up what to wear for the week, but eventually I'm back to wearing the same thing over and over - even washing just that so I can wear it again and again. I can't figure out clothes at all. Theoretically, blue jeans, black jeans, tops that match both, right? Nope. It just doesn't work.

I basically wear the same thing every single day for a week (washing every single night), and then another for the next week. I have maybe 3 outfits I alternate.

My boyfriend says I'm like a cartoon character always being in the same clothes when he sees me

I don't care whether my clothes are stylish or anything. Although I do wear a lot more stylish than they used to be. When I was in my early teens, I wore mostly jogging pants (is that the word or are they called training pants?) because I liked the feel of them. Now I do wear jeans, but I hate tight ones.

I wear what I find to look good and confortable with little care about what other think, now just wish men section were a little more creative in their design of shirt and other thing to put over t-shirt and sweater (which I just choose in plain color since it fit everywhere and with almost anything =p)


Would actually get dress hand tailored if I had money for it. Mostly because my ideal suit of cloth fit in what a tailor would make but it is too much out of norm to find in store. (But if I got to give a name on the style it would be close to Victorian). Other reason for the tailor is because that way I don't have to do 5 hours of shopping to find 2 shirt I can fit (last time I went looking for new shirt that what I took me since all shirt that were insteresting enough were not large enough at shoulder (and that up to XXL) while my old shirt are only L)

Clothing and fashion far exceed my threshold for complexity. So I long ago came up with a simple system: own lots of the exact same thing, all in one color (black; no patterns because my eyes get too involved in them, and I don't like the sounds some of the patterns make; all cotton because my skin rejects everything else), and wash everything once a week or sooner if my sensitive nose so requires.

Years of practice and such lead to the adoption of a couple of green shirts and a gray shirt, plus several pears of blue jeans.

Now at age 40+ I have no plans to further expand or extend my wardrobe. I've clearly hit my limit of figuring out what matches, what is in style or fashion.

Note: I own a gray suit, which gets worn about once every other year at most. It is, I'm told, completely out of style.

I don't pay much attention to fashion. I just wear what is comfortable.

I hate tight jeans as well. I don't get how peoples can wear them.

Ah, I never saw the point in having different varieties of clothing. I always went with my usual black jeans, black shirt, and a jacket with a hoodie or just a hoodie sweater thing. Even in the summer too, I say it's cold and no one believes me =/.

I think clothes are really important. I found that when I take care of my appearance I feel more cheerful, and I have been amazed by how different clothes change other people's reactions, both subtly and in big ways. For instance I found that people would listen to me for longer when I was wearing pretty fitted clothes, and that when I wear a serious suit with a jacket people react as if I am in charge and they do whatever I suggest.

I also notice that I find it easier to be with people who are dressed in attractive clothes. When people are wearing mismatched clothes or ill-fitting clothes or falling-apart clothes, it makes me feel nervous and sad and worried about them. Clothes that are too bright seem to shout at me - lots of cycling people wear dayglo yellow and don't realise that it is quite painful on the eyes. Clothes that expose too much skin (short shorts for instance) or are too tight-fitting (eg cycle shorts on men) embarrass me, and I can't look at a man dressed like that and have to stay further away from them in order to feel comfortable. I think those reactions are quite normal and rational.

I don't think you need a lot of clothes - I usually wear the same two sets of clothes until they wear out. I have two work suits (both black, plus several blouses) and two at home outfits (currently jeans and several shirts) and that is it. I don't think anyone minds. They comment that you wear the same thing all the time if it is something unusual, but not if it's an outfit that lots of people wear. A great tip I got was to buy a whole outfit when you see it in a catalogue or on a shop mannequin. That solved my inability to work out what goes with what.

I don't try to be fashionable, that's far too complicated as someone else mentioned. Fashions change from year to year. Style trends evolve more slowly so an outfit bought ten years ago can still look okay if it wasn't terribly fashionable at the time. But after twenty years it will look outdated.

Hope this helps.

I have one particular wardrobe: blue jeans (or black slacks) and black t-shirts, and I always wear a jacket (unless it's just too damn hot). I don't see the sense in variety cos I equate it with pretentiousness. Wearing different clothes all the time just seems like a person is attempting to draw attention to themselves. There's the aspie in me, no doubt.

You mean the bottoms of your pants were too high? Yeah, I remember other kids teasing me for wearing "high-waters" in like first grade. I remember hardly being able to see the difference, and not understanding AT ALL why it was a bad thing. I was TOTALLY oblivious to fashion. I also just found some truly fantastically awful photos of myself from several years after I abandoned the "high-waters", of chubby 11-y-o me in a weird purple shirt tucked into a pair of stretchy yellow shorts that were pulled up waaaay too high. OTL

I don't remember when I started to notice fashion, (I know it was a short while after a loooong bout of overalls-wearing.) but I think I'm sort of better at it now. Especially pants, I've been steadily improving at pants. (check it out, this is the kind of thing I wear now: https://www.kuhl-usa.com/products/Eskape.html ) I avoided wearing capris for a while because of the high-water thing, (Even though I'm 23 now, lolllll, hanging on to the past much?) but I tried it this year because it's been too hot here for normal pants, and it seemed to go well. No one jumped out from behind a mailbox to tease me or anything, LOL. I am still unsure about shorts. XD;; Most girl-shorts are too short for me to feel comfortable, and I'm afraid the longer ones will look.. frumpy? I dunno. D: It's sooooo complicated.

I have a pair of pants that were kicking around my wardrobe for a long time that were way too short. I finally wrote "SHORT" on the tag in the back so that I would know. For some reason, I hated the thought of getting rid of them entirely because, well... you never know when you need a pair of pants in a pinch, even an ill-fitting pair.

Totally hear you on the plaid. I used to own a ton of plaid flannel shirts because I found them extremely comfortable, they were good for taking on and off to adjust body temperature, and they had a friendly feel to them. Sure, many of them said "lumberjack" but I took function over form.

I grew up wearing all hand-me-downs, and hated the stiffness of new clothes, so I would always buy them in thrift stores. A friend of mine cuts all the branding off his clothes, including the embroidery. There are so many different styles you can have now, and thrift-store retro is chic.

Cargo pants are awesome. My wallet goes in the cargo pocket, on a chain so I don't lose it. It ends up looking hip, or least acceptably close.

Figure out what you like (soft, loose, solid color, green, whatever). You'll have options, so pick one style that goes together. Any combination of clothes from Old Navy can be worn together and look OK. But make sure they fit well (not oversize) unless you really want the hip-hop baggy look (or whatever). I would say that wearing sweats should usually be limited to around the house and similar very casual situations. It's a safer fashion choice to wear real pants, and maybe a T-shirt and a hoodie.

Don't worry about wearing the same clothes all the time. It's cool not to be a 'fashion victim'.

When you shop, take a friend who can give you advice. That's a good idea for anyone, because nobody sees themself the way other people do.

Learn some rules. A lot of high fashion is based on violating the rules of good taste, so don't look at that for guidance. Don't mix too many patterns. Only wear one piece of plaid clothing at a time. Try to wear one thing that isn't the same color as everything else. Darker, drabber colors are safer than lighter and brighter ones. The safer you feel, the less safe your style can be. Experiment at home with your friends first.