Defining Fashion Moments

Dr. Phil says that everyone has defining moments and that if we look back at moments that changed our lives and who we are then we can learn a lot about ourselves…

Growing up my parents always made sure we had nice clothes. I use the word “nice” because they were, but rarely did they fall into the category of “Supercoolmusthave” clothes.

Now you might think that as a guy that I wouldn’t have been fashion conscious growing up, however, I was raised with two older sisters, and an older foster sister for a good portion of my youth.

I distinctly remember the 80’s and how everything seemed to revolve around the way you looked. The girls had super huge bangs, the guys had shaved lines on the sides of their heads and if you were lucky, your butt was covered with Calvin Klein underwear and Guess Jeans.

I could go chronicle my life in fashion here starting with parachute pants, guess jeans, Z Cavaricci’s, and Marithe and Francois Girbaud, but this post isn’t titled, “My Life in Pants.”

What I do want to discuss is one particular vivid fashion moment that still burns with extreme clarity in my mind today.

I had just bought a pair of “Bitten Fly” guess jeans and I wanted everyone to know that I was wearing them. The little triangle on the butt of the jeans is the only way one would know that you were wearing them and so this forced me to tuck my shirt in which was something I rarely did because I was a little chunk.

The local grocery store in Sanger was called Burrus. Burrus seemed to employ a good portion of the cool kids and so when my mom asked me if I wanted to go to the grocery store I leapt at the opportunity. I pulled on my Guess Jeans, I tucked in my shirt, I sucked in my stomach and off we went to Burrus.

The crazy point of this story, (and yes it does have one) is that I went into Burrus and purposely walked around until I saw everyone that I knew from school. As soon as I would see someone I would turn around hoping that this cool person would see my Guess Jeans and therefore immediately think I was cool.

As I sit here in type this at Starbucks I am wearing Guess Jeans. The little triangle has gone by the wayside, but the jeans are still cool.

I think it is odd how after all these years that sometimes we still put on something and it makes us feel better about ourselves. Sometimes it is a pair of jeans, sometimes it is a Burberry scarf, and sometimes it is just carrying around a Starbucks cup of coffee.

So what makes you feel better about you?