Fashion-Challenged

[Guest Foosnark]

So is anyone else here pretty much clueless where it comes to fashion?

In high school in the 80s I had a style... it might not have been a good style, but it was mine. It was colorful, probably clashed a lot, and I never really put much thought into it and just let things happen. But hey, it was the 80s. Over time though, I fell into just wearing geeky t-shirts and jeans.

Now that I'm making an effort though... I apparently screw up a lot. Meanwhile my wife seems to have an instinct for it, and both her criticisms and insights often takes me by surprise.

Yesterday I wore a pink (kind of a faded red look) short-sleeve button-down men's shirt, reddish-brown Thai fisherman pants, and was going to wear brown boots with them but the pants are on the shorter side and I opted for my black motorcycle boots instead. She thought it was a ridiculous combination, and not for color reasons. I'm still not entirely sure why. She actually said "maybe we should just put you in dresses, that way at least you wouldn't have to worry about matching the top and bottom." Heh.

When we went out to dinner she had me switch to a t-shirt (this one) and my black Thai pants with cream-colored flowers down the right leg and zebra stripes at the bottom of the left, and brown sandals while my toenails were painted purple... and it worked and I felt great about it. Go figure.

I am still a little cavalier about it and don't want to shy away entirely from funkiness. But I'm finding it a challenge to my self-confidence sometimes. Clothes make the gender-fluid person too I guess! I don't want to have to rely on my wife to dress me, or consult here about every bit of clothing I buy. Maybe I have to for a while.

I suspect if I'd been born female I'd probably have been mostly-tomboy and might not have had any more innate fashion sense than I do now anyway.

[Guest kelise]

While I have to admit, I had no idea what Thai fisherman pants were ( I Googled them, and thank you for introducing them to me, they're super-cute! I'll have to get me some!) I can see why a button-down shirt would not go with them. Even though you did get a good color-combination, these pants are the epitome of casual and a button down shirt is always slightly dressy. Even if it's a soft-material "casual" button-down, it's still too dressy for these pants, which require a T-shirt of tank top to reach their maximum level of coolness. As a woman, I would find the most colorful, girly pair of these and pair it with a tight-fitting, solid-color, white or matching color spaghetti-strap top, and flip flops. (That's another thing, these pants would cringe over anything other than open-toed flip-flops of sandals.)

My fashion sense came a while after my transition. In fact I'm still developing it. When I lived as a guy I had no interest in clothes, not men's clothes anyway. My closet looked like those TV show characters who wear the same thing everyday: Their entire closet filled with replicas of the same outfit. For me it was a stack of identical jeans, a stack of white, black, gray, and dark color crew-neck T-shirts with nothing on them, my dusty brown work boots, and an equally dusty brown suede bomber jacket. That's what I wore every day. In the hotter months, I'd forgo the jacket or exchange it for a silk Hawaiian shirt, and jean shorts.

Today I'm much better. I find looking at the models pics in magazines helps. Look at the other items they're wearing. Even so, I would love a day of shopping with a personal stylist. That would be awesome.

[Guest jennifer-at-home]

Dont worry you are not the only one that is clueless when it comes to fashion, it was only two days ago my girlfriend told me that I would need to get a different pair of shoes, that would go with my outfit like sandals or something, because you cannot wear socks with... (sorry can't remember what now) the point it I found it baffling, I though the outfit I was wearing was fine . but I am hoping it is some thing that we will improve at, personally I have started reading some fashion magazines to try and get the basics down, I have found this helpful for spotting clothes I like, I don't have many Clothes.

anyway my point is your not alone

jen