Re: [Paddlewise] Fashion Sense

Confessions of a fashion fiend:

   There are actual fashion rules one would follow. The Patagucci and North
Face gear is worn to the grocery store and Home Depot, which makes you look
manly and outdoorsy. The good outdoor clothing rairly gets outside the
city limits.

   Whatever is worn on kayak camping trips is going to receive burn holes
from embers from the campfire. Therefore, a sacrificial jacket is needed
for trips, one that is warm but already has burn holes from previous trips.
The same principle applies to shirts, pants, socks, etc. Sturdy warm clothing
is needed, but rarely is brand new stuff abused in the bush. My official
camping jacket is an inexpensive L.L.Bean pile item that is covered with
scorch marks from my Svea stove and campfires. Conversely, said jacket  
goes cross-country skiing, but never shopping.

   The Early Winters pile jacket ($5 at a garage sale) is extremely warm and
comfortable, and is only worn at home, preferably with a cup of coffee and
a newspaper. The sweatpants ($5 at Target on sale) can go anywhere, because
$5 is a pitance and so they are expendable (I bought multiple pairs on sale).
I would not dream of going kayaking or camping with the good stuff, hence the
good stuff seldom gets used. This is very bad economics, but sterling fashion
sense.

Brad

> On 30/03/2010 1:20 PM, Craig Jungers wrote:
>> Have you, like me, noticed how many people are wearing clothes by North
>> Face? Is this some fad I missed out on completely? Even the shoppers in
>> Wal-Mart (uh... I never shop there... my wife made me go in.... I shop at
>> Goodwill and Salvation Army) wear North Face clothes. It must drive the
>> Wal-Mart folks nuts.
>>
>> To my daughter's everlasting shame, I have no fashion sense at all and am
>> happiest wearing an old sweater with holes in the sleeves that I got for
>> Christmas in 1972. And I swear that I saw a teenage girl prancing around the
>> mall in my old ripped and torn jeans. My wife went for the innocent look but
>> when I got back home I couldn't find them anywhere. So there went the only
>> possible fashion sense garment that I had.

   Darryl Johnson responded:

> I have a sweater I bought in Ireland in 1963. It is, I must confess,  
> a bit the worse for wear, but I continue to haul it out and wear it.
>
> The sleeves now sport leather patches, and where I roll up the cuff  
> one turn, that fold also now has leather patches. I have yet to  
> figure out how to make leather patches for the various holes that  
> are appearing in the chest and back however. Or, to be more precise,  
> how to get leather patches that will cover these holes and avoid my  
> wife's wrath. (She's already on the edge whenever I put it on.)
>
> I do not, however, wear this sweater while paddling. Not even under  
> my drysuit. (Obligatory paddling content.)
>
> Fashion sense? I've gotten along very nicely, thank you very much,  
> without it for over six decades. Why worry about it now?
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