a la mode

I've been thinking about clothes all day. First at the gym there were high school girls working out in their pajamas. One would have made my go hmmm and quickly move on, but there were two of them, and (thankyou Kottke!) two is a trend. Then I had a shirt dilemma. I have this new stripey shirt from Old Navy with a button-down collar. In the store, these button-down-collar shirts are displayed with the collars unbuttoned. I have always thought that not buttoning a button-down collar is either an affectation of the too-cool or an embarrassing absentminded gaffe, but I'm way too out of it to have any idea if the new cool is unbuttoned and buttoning your collar has become the equivalent of leaving your Polo collar flat, i.e., not turning it up, in the 1980s. What a bunch of idiots we were walking around Bialik Hebrew Day School in sweatpants and loud Polo shirts with the collars up. Next fashion moment: a student in my class sits in the front row wearing pink thigh-high stockings. I thought I had died and gone to 1995. Is the Clueless look the new retro? I have no idea. Monday is the only day of the week I have to dress in any way presentable; the rest of my life I spend wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It's a strange day for me when I have fashion on the mind.

Oh, the collar? Buttoned.