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On Fashion Sense

For the most part, I'm a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy. I can certainly clean up when I have to, and I have my occasional forays outside of that comfort zone. Still, though, you wouldn't realistically describe me as being trendy or highly fashionable. Hell, there are little kids who consistently put me to shame. Keep that in mind. It will make the rest of this post that much more entertaining.

Recently, a bunch of us went out for happy hour after work. It was promoted more as a team building thing, so I made a point of joining in on the fun. Either way, it was the first time I'd hung out with some of these folks outside the confines of a cubicle. That made for some interesting revelations and exchanges, mostly centered around what I refer to as "girly girl" things. Allow me to explain.

We were talking when one of my coworkers commented that she really liked nice purses and jewelry. We're talking luxury brands, the kind of stuff that costs you at least three digits and that has well-recognized Italian and French names. That led to:

Me: "Oh, you know, I have a friend whose sibling designs purses for one of those shops."
(Female) Coworker: "Really?! Hook me up!"
Me: "Haha, I don't think it works like that. I can't remember what company it was, though. Maybe Coach?"
(Male) Coworker: "What's a Coach?"

This guy is married, and has been for a while. But he had never before heard of this company, and was incredulous that I knew about it (I've had some adventures shopping for a purse as a gift, remember?). Funnily enough, the lady in the conversation was just as incredulous that he had never come across this particular brand. Eager to prove a point, the guy actually asked for a show of hands for people who knew what type of products Coach sells. All of the women raised their hands, and a good chunk of the guys did, too. Funnily enough, I did notice that most of the married guys were represented in the raised-hand contingent.

 That kicked off a whole round of discussion about clothes and fashion, with one guy noting that packing his wife's clothes during a semi-recent move had taken surprisingly long. There was quite a lot of laughter at this point, so I don't remember all of the details. I do remember quips about sweaters in summer time and a surprisingly large shoe collection. However, the part I do remember went a little something like this:

Male Coworker: "Me, on the other hand, I only wear like five shirts. It drives my wife nuts."
Female Coworker: " ... and this is why every one needs a girl. Otherwise you end up wearing five shirts."

I was highly amused by this banter. Mind you, this was a different set of coworkers than the first time around, so we weren't talking about one specific man and one specific woman. Had that been the case, you might be able to write it off as one outlier dominating the conversation. Nope, this was more of a general tone of the conversation and of the night.

All in all, though, I was feeling pretty proud of myself for knowing what type of items Coach sold, and for having more than five shirts hanging in my closet. Not bad for a guy who started this whole thing off with, "I'm a t-shirt and jeans guy," huh?

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