Are My Cheeks Red?

Happy 2009 to you! One of my many New Year's resolutions is to start a weekly blog dealing with issues that are thudding around in my brain. But it won't be world peace that I'll be pondering--not for the most part anyway. Instead, and unfortunately, what is occupying that little bit of left-over space is my infatuation with vintage clothing. Sometimes I lay awake at night with unanswered questions or my day's adventures...Which has led me to this blog. Maybe I'll learn something...

I have this wonderful pair of red polyester, and I mean RED, Mercury Sportswear men's vintage pants from the 1970’s. So I decided to break them in for the first time on my favorite holiday--Christmas. I paired it with a JC Penney Towncraft 1970’s men's vintage shirt with rose prints that I thought would look hip with it. But in the mirror I saw brightness, got scared, and threw on a dark blue V-neck sweater to darken my ensemble. I may have acted brave, but I was still a little apprehensive to leave the house. I was only going to my parent's house--so what was the big deal? Here was my problem. A belief that I'm trying to change is that I think people should wear what they want regardless of what “looks good” in the public eye, or what the current fashions or trends are. Though I may think this, it's hard to practice what I preach. I’m kicking myself all the time when I see people who are dressed differently and say, “They're wearing that with that??” But then I quickly realize that they've got guts to wear what they wear (or just don't know any better.) Why do we care what others think about our dress? I love what I sell on my website, but I also want to believe in what I sell, if that makes sense. I am self-conscious about some vintage that I wear, probably because society has influenced me. But if I like what I’m wearing, who cares what others think? I want to feel good about what I wear for myself, and I want the same for others like me. Anyway, it’s funny, when I got to my parent’s house for our Christmas gathering, everyone I came up to said, “Nice pants.” Sarcasm? Some. But I was feeling a little more confident in my choice. So I asked others later, just to be sure. My brother-in-law asked if my pants were a fire hazard. My mom thought my outfit was “Christmasy”. My wife thought the sweater and shirt looked ok together, especially because the sweater covered up the shirt, and said with the pants I looked part-clown. My Dad, who’s 60+, thought the whole thing looked great. My three year old daughter just growled at me. One sister thought my pants were loud. My other sister said the pants were obnoxious, and that the navy blue and Santa red didn’t mix. She felt that it would be better without the sweater. So I went back to how I started. Ok, yeah, it’s my family, and they were brutally candid. Around strangers will be my true test.

This is my daughter. Cute outfit, right? What if you put that on me (not in that size)? Not so cute? Why do kids get the fashion breaks? I actually wouldn’t mind her pants pattern as a disco shirt.
This is my brother David, who owns funksauce.com with me, in a purple, glittery, female sweater. And I thought I was being brave.