What’s The Statement Exactly?

            I have never been one to follow the latest fashion trends, or any fashion trends to be quite honest. Let alone jump on the bandwagon of any single one and run with it as if it was my idea in the first place. Mostly because I feel that the majority of the latest fashions trends make no sense. Who are they really kidding with some of this crap? Like a bird nest in your hat? All the rage in Paris you say? I’ll take two!

The majority of the outfits and accompanying accessories are not the kind of things you would want to wear while out for a leisurely stroll about town without being pointed and giggled at. And not just the behind your back kind of giggles either. Not quite in your face but, you will however witness it first hand right in front of you. Even the models that are showcasing these so called works of “art” would not be caught dead out in public wearing any of this shite.

Yet I must admit I that there is a ton of work, creativity and talent put into these bazaar creations that nobody will ever wear. You have to admire that at least, regardless of just what kind of “statement” they are attempting to make.

The ever growing fashion trend these days that I would like to talk about here has nothing to do with creativity, imagination, any kind art form nor would you ever see it on a fashion runway unless it was featured in a Rodney Dangerfield movie. It mostly has to do with the complete opposite of all of those things. It requires no creativity, no hard work, no talent, nor imagination so anyone can participate. And believe me the number of participants is growing fast. A sad reflection on society indeed.

I have to let you know that this writing is going to invoke one of two reactions from most of the readers here. Either “Holy crap, you’re kidding?” or “Holy crap, I know right?” It may even be a “Holy crap, I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it”.  Yes I know that’s three holy craps, I just wanted to see if you were still paying attention.

Another notable point is the one that I left out on purpose. The reply that you don’t want to make in public which is the “What’s wrong with that? I do it all of the time”, kind of response. Because I truly and honestly, hope and pray, that none of you does this, or wear anything that resemble this, or even within a close proximity whatsoever. I'm just trying to look out for you here my friend. That’s my explanation and I'm sticking to it.

Since when did pajamas and track pants become an acceptable replacement, for lack of a better term, clothing. I mean the kind of clothes that are suitable to wear in public, like anything that doesn't look like you slept in it. Clothing that showed that you had a degree of pride in yourself to take the minimal amount of time that it took to let other people know that you cared about your appearance and felt good about doing so. You didn’t take the lazy way out and called it a fashion statement even if you are wearing brand new pajamas or track suit.

  Pajama pants and a parka do not constitute dressing for the weather. Just how lazy do you have to be to not want to, at the very least, shower and put on some clothes that don’t look like you just crawled out of bed, picked them up off of the floor from a crumpled ball and decided to go out in public. Do you wear the same thing for days in a row? Or do you just pick them up off of the floor on a daily basis and re-wear them when you wake up?

This is not limited to just young people. At least in this town it isn't. I would love to hear from you whether this is a growing epidemic where you live. I saw what appeared to be a seventy–ish woman wearing a pair of white pajama pants with pink and blue polka dots with slippers at the grocery store the other day. And that is only one incident. These sightings are not rare. I wish they were. Has our society become so lazy and uncaring that we are all about not even trying any more, regardless of how we smell? Very sad indeed.

I saw a man yesterday walking up the side walk that I could only describe as a track suit ninja and here’s why. I will try to give you the best possible description because I was unable to take a picture. I was driving at the time and just could not pull it off.

I'm not singling him out because this is the most unusual, noooo. This is commonplace. It just was one of those things that you can’t look away from. Kind of like a car wreck. I'm surprised that I haven’t been in a ton of accidents because I was visually locked to an anomaly like this.

Picture the sweat pants and matching sweater in the typical track suit grey. We all know the track suit grey colour. It’s the basic colour option that we have available before all of other colour options on the rack. That being said I think I’ll start at the top and work my way down for no reason in particular.

The head covering was a balaclava with the limited faced opening stretched to its maximum in order to fit under the chin and proudly display an impressive beard. The all too familiar pair of white framed shades was covering the eyes. I always thought that the white framed glasses looked like older style 3D glasses with the red and blue lenses or that they were the only pair that your sister had at the time and she let you borrow them. As I said, the sweater matches the pants so not much here.

Moving down this ensemble is a black leather fanny pack strategically positioned right up front for convenience. The snowmobile mittens, full gauntlet style I might add, covered the exposed digits. Old style ski doo boots covered the feet. Remember the boots that had the huge rubber bottoms and the canvas uppers with the felt inserts? Yeah them. And I was saving the best for last.

Let me scroll back up just a little to give you a touch more of the visual. The fanny pack was not only used as a fanny pack. It was also ingeniously used as a belt because the sweater was tucked into the sweat pants. The sleeves of the sweat shirt were pushed up to the above biceps level for further coolness. How cool is that in below freezing temperatures baby.

Why have we degenerated so rapidly into this sort of self disrespect? And why has it become so acceptable so quickly.