If The Shirt Fits, Wear It!

Recently, my wife gave our 5 year old daughter some old, duplicate pictures to scrapbook. She pretty much hacks them up from an adult perspective, but takes great pride in her creations. Yesterday she showed me one of her pages with some of our old dating pictures on it.

The first thing that caught my eye was a shirt I was wearing that brought back a lot of memories. The shirt was a bright yellow color with a big logo that said "Lilac Festival" and had purple lilacs on the front. I had to smile.

The ladies reading this post are thinking "why would he buy and wear such a monstrosity!" As a single male student my values were different back then. I remember looking through the racks of clothes at our local thrift store and finding that particular shirt. So why did I buy it? These were my thoughts (in order) at the time.

1. "Wow that is a really bright and catchy color shirt."
2. "Only 4 dollars!"
   
3. "The material feels really thick and durable."
   
4. "The size looks like it should fit me. Let me try it on over my current shirt."
   
5. "Wow that is an ugly logo and it says something about lilacs. What the heck is the Lilac Festival?"
   
6. "But boy is it comfortable and it feels well made."
   
7. "Remember, only 4 dollars--I'm sold!"

And so a crime against fashion was committed. Now that I am married, my thought pattern has forever been changed, and if I were to buy such an item, I'm sure my wife would swiftly donate it to Good Will.

If I were female, I wonder how my thoughts would have been different. Let me try and speculate.

1. "OK, now remember what I learned last week on What Not to Wear."
   
2. "That blouse looks like it may conform to the fashion rules I learned."
   
3. "Good, it has vertical and not horizontal stripes."
4. "Earth tones should bring out my eyes and compliment my complexion."
   
5. "Let me take it and the other 50 items I'm holding and try them on."
   
6. "Excuse me; Miss, what do you think of this blouse on me? Does it make my hips look fat?"
   
7. "I wish I had brought so and so with me, she always looks so cute in the outfits she picks out."
   
8. "200 dollars, I wonder if I'm maxed out on the credit card yet?"
9. "Such a small price to pay to look and feel good about myself."
10. "I really deserve this."
11. "Maxed out? How could that be? Here, try this card, it should be good."

I'm just joking around. But the truth is men and women do think differently. So don't judge single guys too harshly based on their wardrobe. If you talked to them, you'd find they had a logical reason for purchasing each item in their ensemble.