Friday, January 20, 2012

In praise of bowties

I don't think there are many people who would call me fashionable. More than one person, in fact, has called my style "lazy chic" and I don't know that they meant it as a compliment.

I like comfortable clothes. I like plaid flannel. Quilted plaid flannel. There are people in the world who count this fact among the reasons they love me, but just because they love me for it doesn't mean I don't look like the Michelin Man most of the winter.

What's strange is that I like clothes. I do. I like knee high boots and chunky sweaters and all manner of scarves. But I like to mix them in weird combinations, and I only like them if they are super comfortable, which in this day and age of sequins and bedazzled jean pockets means that I usually end up looking frumpy and like I got dressed in the dark.

It's even more important for me to choose comfort and utility over fashion now that I am a bicycle commuter. But I can't look like a slob at work, so what's a person to do?

There is a man who rides the ferry with me who wears a jacket and a bow tie every day. He rides in on his bicycle looking dapper and cool as a cucumber even as I lumber on, hair already mussed beyond repair, sweating and panting. At the end of the day he still looks completely put together. Bow ties are very underrated. If you are a professor, you should wear them. If you are young and ironic, you should wear them. If you want to delight me, you should wear them.

I can't take a picture of the wonderful bow-tied gent and his neckwear without getting in his face, and so instead I leave you with an example of my best guess at "fashionable, work-appropriate, breezy, stretching bicycle commuting" fashion: flat boot, stretch jeans, flowy shirt for aeration. Voila!

What's your favorite bicycle attire? Any fashion tips for me?


No comments:

Post a Comment