Thursday, 22 March 2012

My Trousers are Frayed – An Aspergian look at fashion. « Springingtiger's Blog

My Trousers are Frayed – An Aspergian look at fashion.

I have just thrown out a pair of trousers, they needed to be thrown out, their legs were frayed and they had given way around the places where I had repaired them. When I have clothes I like, they tend to get worn until they fall apart. I like my clothes comfortable with lots of pockets, lots and lots of pockets. I prefer natural fibres, but I do like a soft fleece. I have some shirts with collars, but I rarely wear them, preferring rather to wear shirts with round collars or with none. Clothes are best when they are fairly well worn and have been washed a lot.

I generally wear the same things, that I change my clothes is primarily down to having a schedule; underwear daily, shirts every two days, everything else when I feel like it or my olfactory senses alert me to a need to change.

I have several identical gilets for winter and lighter ones for summer, I rarely wear jackets. I do have jackets for when the rain is too heavy, they are less important in snow as I have several fleece lined woolen cardigans made in Nepal, now it is spring they will give way to successively lighter fleeces until the weather is warm enough for shirt sleeves.

I wear hats most of the time outside, a brim or a peak keep the rain off my face, I find rain on my face extremely annoying, I also find bright lights can be difficult on occasion. I find in wet weather I am more inclined to wear gloves than in cold weather, as I don’t like the feel of the rain on my hands either.

I used to wear sandals all year round as I found them comfortable, but my wife insisted that for health reasons I should wear shoes in winter. Now I am in the habit of wearing boots every time I go out, but indoors it’s always bare feet. I dislike having anything encasing my feet, even just socks.

Not only do I need lots of pockets, so that I can carry the essentials of life (pens, notebooks, money, diary, phone, keys, monocular, torch, spinning top, yoyo, sweets, earplugs, ipod, bus pass, spectacles, sunglasses, book, sweets, penknife, multi tool, wallet, id, emergency phone charger) but I also have to carry a rucksack for books, magazines, snacks, flask, spares of pocket stuff. Around my neck I have my spare door key and my USB key in case I want to use someone else’s computer with my choice of OS.

I think it’s fair to say that I see clothes as functional items, I am not what I wear and I see no need to project an image of myself. I accept that some jobs require conformance to a dress code, but beyond that I see no reason not to dress purely for comfort. Personally I find the imposition of a dress code ridiculous, it is a practice of little minds who feel it necessary to impose some sort of social conformity and reflects their own inadequacy. Adherence to a dress code is also tragic, I am at a loss to see how being uncomfortable to the point of distraction and short temperedness can, in any way, contribute to productivity or good morale. Even sadder than dress codes is the need of people to, without compulsion, adhere to the dictates of fashion, often as laid down by a subset of society. A concern with one’s appearance is a symptom of a mind given to the pursuit of trivial concerns like the lives of celebrities, and should have no relevance to one’s employment or social acceptability.


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