On Wearing Jeans - and Things

SP of Secretly Skint recently posted on the subject of modes of dress in Snowy Day .  She made the point, and has since emphasised it with more posts, that she was eschewing all forms of dress other than jeans and things which went with jeans and has gone even further and cleared out most of her other clothes.  She did retain a few tops to turn into smocks to go with the jeans.  Personally I think that the first wedding or visit to the opera (when in the UK) might be a little bit of an issue.  Not that it would be in provincial Napier nor rural Lewis.

Until a couple of years ago I had never worn nor owned a pair of jeans.  Things have changed as I mentioned in Jeans and now I wear jeans a lot and either dress them up or down as need be.  Obviously, though, like SP I live in 25+℃ a lot of the time so wear shorts and polo shirts a great deal of the time.

SP also mentioned that she was now at the clearing things out stage of life.  I've been there done that and got the blog posts to show for it.  However she and I differ in one fundamental issue: I like to dress according to my mood and therefore I like choice.  I have lots of different moods.  It follows that I have lots of different clothes including, in Scotland, lots of Colourful Clothes from which to choose.

Looking back on life I find it amusing (and rather sad and vaguely embarrassing) that when I was a young man I used to go hiking and climbing in a collar and tie.  Now I never wear a tie (shame 'cos I have lots of very interesting ones) unless it's a very formal occasion or at the start of an event where it soon gets discarded.

One of the lovely things about living in New Zealand in general and provincial New Zealand in particular is the informality of dress.  For example when we go to the ballet or opera there may be people in formal evening dress and there may be people in shorts and jandles.  Neither will feel out of place.  Personally I tend towards the more rather than less formal (but I still wouldn't wear a tie).

Jeans

Shabby Girl posted about jeans today.  Actually although I’m writing this at about 1400 hrs Wednesday in NZ it’s still Tuesday in Shabby Girl’s part of the world (US).  And in about 7 weeks I’ll have to get used to being in the ‘wrong’ hemisphere and the ‘wrong’ time zone all over again.  As usual, I digress.  Anyway the post made me talk about my recent conversion and my comment was so long I decided to do my own post for those who wouldn’t otherwise visit Shabby Girl.

I'm a child of the '60s brought up in Liverpool in the shadow of The Beatles but I never owned a pair of jeans until a couple of years ago. In fact it was one of my proud boasts.  A (female) friend marched me into Napier's 'poshest' menswear shop and 'suggested' to the owner that he find me a pair of jeans that fitted properly round my bum (sorry, can't get used to butt). Despite my protestations I walked out with a pair and, contrary to my expectations, they are supremely comfortable. In NZ they are acceptable for dressing up or dressing down which is handy too.

The downside to me at the time was that they cost what I thought was going to be a wasted $NZ200. More than I would usually have paid for a 'proper' pair of trousers (and I have fairly expensive tastes). I now own probably 6 pairs of jeans (some here and some in the UK - I have to have two sets of clothes to prevent me carrying loads of luggage). I have learned a lesson. ALWAYS try jeans on before you get them home. Only three pairs fit me really well and the others just about qualify for working in the garden. Another two went straight to the charity shop/op shop/goodwill* Although jeans can be very expensive I'm not convinced there is a direct correlation between price/label and fit. One of my best fitting pairs only cost £35 ($NZ 75) from M&S.

Yes. I love my jeans. But not this afternoon. It's 28 deg again.

* Delete according to country of residence (it’s that English language again)!