Wardrobe Issues

I’m going to address a serious topic today – wardrobe issues. If you have any doubts as to the seriousness of this issue, look around. It’s a very common problem. A uniform, like maybe scrubs, can afford you some protection from the fashion faux pas that plague so much of the world’s population, but when you’re not at work, you’re on your own.

You have undoubtedly dealt with this complex and often troublesome matter at some point in your life. The business of how to present yourself appropriately in the wide variety of situations in which we find ourselves on a daily basis is tricky at best. It is said that the clothes make the man/woman. There’s a lot of truth to that, and as such we need to be careful when we go to our closets each morning to make a selection. I’m hoping of course that you have reasonably decent options from which to choose because that is precisely where the problem generally lies for what is clearly a sizable chunk of the population, myself included.

When I was very young, clothes shopping was a pretty simple process. I would walk into a store, rifle through the racks of clothing, find stuff that I liked, try it on to check the fit, pay for it, and be on my way. It went on like that for quite a while, but then gradually began to change. I recall with unsettling clarity the day I walked into the “Misses” section of a department store and glanced around. There were frumpy clothes to the right of me, to the left for me, in front of me, and in back of me. I was surrounded. There was nothing but matronly looking outfits in all directions, every one of which was obviously designed to hide figure problems.

I turned and fled to the junior department. I tried on a few things and quickly realized that I couldn’t appear in public wearing anything from that department without looking like a complete imbecile. I was no longer a teenager or even a 20 something. I was trapped in some kind of fashion no man’s land with danger in every direction. I was beyond discouraged.

I’ve struggled with this problem ever since. I did manage to show up for work looking pretty respectable, but it wasn’t without a fair amount of agonizing each and every day over what to wear. I’ll probably always be that way. I think I do okay, although I sometimes worry that I might be blowing it. I’m envious of those of you who really have it together in this area. For the rest of us, it’s a minefield.