This person wrote: I have lived in L.A, NYC, PARIS and I have never seen a man dress like that in my life, so please keep the sanctimonious "country people are better" BS attitude to yourself sweetness. No one in the city would wear this either, so I guess that makes us more equal than you could ever stomach.
I read this comment out loud to the family, and we all chuckled. But then my husband got curious. Just what IS currently fashionable out there these days? Not on the runway, but on the street? Don found a website called Street Peeper which features real-life fashions in various cities in the U.S. and around the world. Some samples:
Don called these the Sponge Bob Square Pants look:
I dunno, I just think all this looks weird.
It's funny... I post on all sorts of different subjects, but the one area where I routinely get frothing-at-the-mouth furious comments is when I poke fun at fashion. Go figure.
So -- to those who take fashion seriously, please understand that I don't. And while you're always welcome on my blog, you'll have to accept the fact that I'm going to find humor in the subject.
However, consider what I wrote in an earlier blog post: I suppose I can't get down too hard on fashion and makeup sites. There's nothing illegal or immoral about them. They feed huge international industries that employ millions. And women have taken an interest in fashion and makeup since the dawn of civilization, so my sour grapes doesn't change that historical fact. I guess my concern is when women become so obsessed with the shallow to the exclusion of the serious, it makes me concerned that they won't be able to handle anything BUT the shallow. On the other hand, I suppose I shouldn't worry. Scarlet O'Hara started shallow and look how she pulled off handling a war.
So for those whom I’ve offended because of my views on fashion, I tender my apologies. But I’m not gonna stop poking fun. If that will continue to offend, then you may prefer to read one of the many different blogs on the internet that focuses on fashion.
And please don't call me sweetness.
Keep poking fun Patrice!!
ReplyDeleteThe fashion clothing your husband found on the website Street Peeper is so awful looking. I would never in my life wear any of those outfits. Would you?
I'm with you Patrice. I too think fashion can be quite funny and fairly shallow. I am one of those that prefer classic clothing since it tends to stay in style (read - I don't have to pay out big bucks every year or every 5 years as the case may be.) Now that I'm retired I care even less for "being in style" Keep up the great work .... and I would never call you sweetness! LOL
ReplyDeleteI kinda prefer the fashions of 'People of WalMart' that goes around from time to time. Now there's real fashion sense.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, who takes fashion to heart? If you don't like something its kind of like weather ... wait 5 minutes and it will change.
Good Job Patrice.
Like N.Y or L.A.? I seriously doubt it, haha.
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
Those country dressed city folk wouldn't last a day on a farm or ranch. Most don't have a clue where their food comes from. That fashion center on the east coast is finding out about what happens when the farms and ranches can't deliver right now. They can eat the country fashion and I'll open a can of beef and make a nice sandwich.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giggle..call something fashionable regardless of looks and you'll always find some idiot who has to have it...of course I live in jeans and t-shirts so what do I know of fashion ? LOL
ReplyDeleteYou mean jeans and t-shirts are NOT fashionable?
DeleteLOL
Hi, Patrice. I just returned home from spending 17 days in the hospital after a bout of diverticulitis. It was hell! But I'm recovering, slowly but surely. Anyway, I'm a bit out of the loop. I sure missed your blogs! I'm gradually catching up. As for your latest snark, he/she is either blind or a typical lying liberal-progressive. PLENTY of men wear outlandish clothes like the ones in the photos. I've seen them myself around our town, and several friends have sent us pictures they call "Walmartians" that show men and women shopping at Walmart wearing far more outlandish clothes than this. Some are downright disgusting! As for apologizing for your comments about these latest... "fashion" apparels, please don't. You said nothing wrong. You stated your opinion and the FACTS. And of course, knowing you, you alway point out that people are free to do as they want, just as YOU are free to state your opinion. No need for an apology for that! God bless you dear girl. Fred in Arizona
ReplyDeleteMy goodness Fred! What an ordeal. My mother has diverticulitis and it's **extraordinarily** painful. Take care of yourself, hear? Prayers for a fast recovery. And don't eat raspberries (those little seeds tend to inflame the condition).
Delete- Patrice
Yes, I must stay away from raspberries and blackberries (darn!), and other such things as sesame seeds, poppy seeds, nuts, etc. Anything small and hard that can get lodged in a sac of the colon. And I SO love nuts! I also must eat more fruit and such that gives me more fiber in my diet. Your prayers are most welcome! All my best. --Fred in AZ
DeletePatrice, I am sure that the fashion industry is run by a bunch of weird men who try and see what strange stuff they can make women want to wear.
ReplyDeleteJMHO
I think your reader was feeling a bit defensive, in addition to utterly lacking the ability to recognize humor. Of course, the height of fashion for me is Hycreek hunting gear, so what do I know?
ReplyDeleteXa Lynn
You're all looking at city clothes from the perspective of your own country vantage. A photographer purposely choosing shots of the sort of clothes I've seen country people wearing in feed stores and country co-ops, and publishing them on a city blog, would elicit the same hilarity and contempt from townees toward yokels as all of you are expressing toward big city fashionistas. Except that the latter probably wouldn't waste their time gawking at 'little people'. (All sentiments expressed are only my perception of the respective social classes.) And as one of your readers pointed out, clothing choices of the Wal-Mart crowd are probably more screamingly look-at-me on *average* than city people. Me, I live in the country and wear home-sewn blue jeans and SallyAnn sweat shirts -- but I think that dress with the purple skirt and fuchsia chiffon over-dress is absolutely beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about those weird fashions is that they are for LOOKS, not practicality. When we see the sort of clothes "country people" wear while in feed stores, co-ops and such, we know those clothes are needed for what that person does, while making a living on their farm, ranch, etc. He or she isn't wearing clothes to make a statement, and anyone who would laugh at such a person is simply showing their ignorance. They're wearing clothes needed for their everyday living and working. There IS a very big difference! --Fred in AZ
DeleteAnother place to see the fashion sense of the person of the street: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos/
ReplyDeleteglad anyone can still aford fashion....you keep doing what you are doing.
ReplyDeletePS Please read the following sentences thus: "All sentiments expressed are only my perception 'of those' of the respective social classes"; and, "....clothing choices of the Wal-Mart crowd are probably more screamingly look-at-me on *average* than 'those of' city people." My head thunk it, but my hands didn't type it. I try to maintain the perspective of an anthropologist from another planet -- and from that perspective all the social classes are pretty much equally strange.
ReplyDeleteOf course people in NY and LA care about fashion and wear what we think is odd. They are the two "centers" of that kind of culture. But you won't see those kinds of outfits in very many other large cities or in the suburbs or small towns or rural areas. "They" poke fun at us so turn about is fair play. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletePLEASE continue to poke fun, Patrice! You do it so well. :-)
ReplyDeleteI am a new reader and fellow North Idahoan. I had a great time catching up with the archives over the weekend. Keep up the good work!
Carhartt forever, lol!
Jenny
Oh, Patrice! I meant to tell you...I actually saw someone wearing those heel-less platform shoes that look like overgrown ballet toe shoes (not the ones with the "heel" in the front that go up to your knees, but the ones that are balanced on your toes). In bright turquoise blue suede. I was driving home from work and saw a young woman in her 20's talking on her cellphone on the sidewalk - she looked like she was waiting for her ride and SERIOUSLY regretting her footwear choices. I live in a small/medium sized Southern city. I almost crashed the car, I couldn't believe anyone would actually buy those things and wear them in daylight.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you really have to wonder how a particular trend gets started. One benefit of being a ugly guy is that I can wear clothes that are comfortable to me-generally pretty bland in appearance(I do have some strange T-Shirts in my T-shirt collection), but comfortable. I want comfortable, durable clothes with pockets.
ReplyDeletePatrice, were all those photos Don found, all taken on
ReplyDeleteOct. 31st?
No, those are all screenshots I took last night.
Delete- Patrice
So in other words... no, they're not Halloween costumes. I don't think.
Delete- Patrice
I am sorry but I do have to point out that I see men dressed like that every time I go to San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteGee, none of those pics are from Philadelphia, so I guess we're not all that fashion forward. Truth is, there is nowhere in the country where the majority of people are fashionable. You can go to Soho or Tribeca on the Lower East side of Manhattan and there are people walking around in sweatpants and Ugg boots. I was out with my wife and daughter and in-laws at a famous Pennsylvania smorgasboard about a week ago. You're not expecting everyone to be dressed upat a place like that, but there was a guy walking up to the buffet tables in a T-shirt that had a logo along the lines of "Honk If You're Horny" tucked into elastic banded sweatpants. II couldn't tell whether he had slippers on or not.It was the kind of outfit you wear when you're hanging around the house all day because you're sick.
ReplyDeleteWe've become a nation of slobs. Slovenly, pierced, tatted, obese, and unable to make an effort to respect others enough to dress for the occasion. And it's not confined to the country, the city, or the suburbs.
I couldn't agree more. --Fred in AZ
DeleteYeah, Sweetness is my husbands name for me!
ReplyDeleteWhat an odd person that would feel negated over a humorous fashion post. Obviously, there are some serious low self esteem issues on the snark's part.
ReplyDeleteI've read your post for some time and have never thought you even implied that country people were better than city folk. As a matter of fact, you frequently point out how hard farm work is and how strenuous, but self satisfying.
Fashion isn't real, it's a joke. It has no permanancy and lasts only until the next ridiculous clothing trend surfaces. What is real and lasting is a life that is fulfilling, nurturing, and honest. It's too bad the snark doesn't have that, but it's rather obvious, the person is miserable.
What never fails to amaze me is why these people, who so apparently disagree with someone's blog, read it. Could it be that they are unhappy and envious....just saying.
There appears to be many forms of what we call "fashion." There is practical fashion for the working stiff, casual fashion for those who just want to be comfortable, and there is "fashion" for those who want to be noticed and make a statement. The latter are truly the odd-balls of the fashion world. I see their products prancing up and down runways all the time. Ridiculous! In that they are impractical, little protection in cold weather, cumbersome or downright ugly. As for Patrice's fashion snark, I, too, have often wondered why these people frequent blogs like Patrice's. Their goal seems to be only to annoy others. A very pathetic reason for living! --Fred in AZ
DeleteI'm probably one of 'those people': I read this blog, together with the Rawles blog and Philadelphia Trumpet, as the opposite pole to the ideology of the BBC, and Washington Post, which I read before them. I couldn't honestly say which side scares me most.
DeleteI always love this subject. It's just plain fun.
ReplyDeleteI like that people have at least one freedom left in this country - to dress however the heck they want.
I like to laugh at the nonsensical things things people wear sometimes.
And, I like to appreciate genuinely artful garb like Wang, Chanel or Brooks Brothers.
And I LOVE that we can all have a laugh over this.
Your snarker needs to lighten up. Sheesh.
Just Me
Hello Patrice, No snark from me today! I want to let you know that I find the photo of the quail on the snow covered fencepost to be absolutely beautiful. Another home business idea-holiday or birthday or any occasion cards using your photos.
DeletePatrice I will never comprehend why people feel the need to visit someone's blog and bash the opinions of the blog owner...
ReplyDeleteApparently snarkers seek out anyone to criticize so they (the snark) can feel better about their low self-esteemed, negative, fault-finding pitiful lives.
My humble opinion, Patrice you ROCK!
Snarkers, just sayin ya'll are sad sad sad.