You may or may not remember that I went on a shopping expedition last fall. There's more to the story.
It turns out that the phrase "40 dollar suit" strikes terror in the hearts of people who are older and wiser than me. I know this, because they read this blog. And because they are my parents, and they have a fairly direct manner when they think I'm making mistake.
If it was just them, I might argue back a bit. I find that the "machine washable" trait of the clothes I bought is priceless and therefore should boost the overall value of my clothes. Armed with this rebuttal, I came home for Thanksgiving, fully intending to be quite satisfied with my decisions.
My mom saw it coming a mile away.
And then she enlisted the neighbors. She fights dirty.
I don't actually know how this all went down. The version I got was that one of our neighbors offered to come on a shopping trip with me to help me pick out additional wardrobe elements. So this is how I found myself, the day before Thanksgiving, in Syms with my mom, my neighbor, and my neighbor's daughter.
In my last post on the subject, I impressed the importance of having a forthright, decisive, honest, and frank shopping companion. It turns out I didn't know the meaning of any of those words. We spent 3 hours in the store. My mother and my neighbor were handing me jackets at an alarming rate. I tried them on right on the sales floor, and I'd be able to wear one for all of 3 seconds before a verdict was reached. Most of the time it was "no."
We found a few suits that met with approval, and then we headed over to the separates section. Of particular note was a bright red wool blazer. I wasn't too certain about it. It had a weird 3 pocket thing going on. I was assured, however, that it fit perfectly and looked fabulous and that I should get it. So I did.
And I didn't get a chance to wear it until today, when I had a job fair. I was going to go with a suit, but I decided the blazer looked better, and it was warmer. After I got assurances from Chris that a blazer was plenty formal for the job fair, I headed out the door.
I won't go into details here, but it was the right decision. I've never had a job fair go as well as today's did. And I credit it at least partially to the red blazer, because everyone else was wearing black suits and I stood out really well.
3 comments:
So this is how I found myself, the day before Thanksgiving, in Syms with my mom[...]
Ditto, except my mom took me to Nordstrom's. It's even more embarrassing after graduation & getting a job. On the positive side, she found a textured black suit that travels well. :-)
-kfc
And from a mom's perspective, it was a wonderful event. Having the neutral party (our neighbor -- who did offer, by the way) there made the whole process easier and more fun. You were very amenable to the try-on-many-jackets drill, and it seemed to work well.
Your parents must be easier to deal with than mine, because I think I'd run away screaming if my mother suggested this. I'm glad things went well, though. (I always wear a bright shirt under the black suit for the same reason.)
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