To be perfectly honest, I had thought of this blog post idea with the intent to bash men’s fashion. And this is why: when my boyfriend goes straight from my house to his job, he doesn’t think twice about what he is is going to wear to work. If he does dress nicely, which is not very often, it’s easy for him throw on any colored button down + gray or black slacks + (possibly) a jacket to match the pants. What’s so damn hard about that?
Because of my unfortunate lot in life, I have to give business attire more thought than the average attire-savvy semi-professional: I quite literally live in two places, so every time that time of the week comes along, I need to figure out how many days I am going to be in the other location, how many of those days I will be working, what the weather and temperature of my office will be like, the correct accessories and footwear, and of course, if all this crap is going to fit in my suitcase. It’s pretty strenuous planning for an entry-level job.
I was fully prepared to rant to you why it must be damn easy to be a man and how nice it would be to pick one pair of black pants out and a couple of button-downs and call it a day. However, when I really thought about it, we as women can do that too – hell, some of us do. We are just as capable to pick one pair of neutral pants out, one pair of matching heels, and a couple of plain blazers and jackets.
But, not all of us choose that, such as myself. As much as I complain about needing to go through all this trouble just to live my day-to-day life, I choose to do this because life is boring enough and I don’t need my clothes to be boring too. Men have this choice as well – I think menswear is an unappreciated art, too often solely employed by those working at well-to-do art-y jobs when menswear can be incredibly interesting.
It’s not all about neutral pants and colored button-downs – it’s also about fine Italian leather shoes and thousand dollar watches. It’s about accenting colors via ties and dress shirts and choosing a perfectly-fitting jacket and interesting key pieces – which, put simply, is the same thing women do. I choose a shirt in a fit and style that complements a pant fit and style ad I pair it with eye-catching accessories – at least I try to.
Men, you’re not off the hook. Women are looking… make it count.
