Preach it, bro

I tried, I really tried, to find an online link to our local paper...but I didn't have any luck. So I'll just have to paraphrase my way through it...

I imagine most local papers do what ours does; once a week, they devote a page to articles written by local teens. My oldest DD actually was one of the contributors her senior year; it's kind of a neat little opportunity for the kids to have real-life experience in essay/op-ed writing. Today's offereings included an article by a young man who is a home-schooled senior, and, as it pertains to clothing and fashion, I thought I'd share a bit...

He opens his article with a quote from Oscar Wilde that I don't think I've encountered before: ...[fashion] is usually a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

The author then relates an experience he had while clothes shopping for a sports jacket. He found a blue one he liked, but the sales clerk told him he shouldn't wear it with the black jeans he happened to be wearing. The young man asked why not, and the clerk gave him a spiel about dark blue not contrasting enough with black, casual and formal wear shouldn't be mixed, yada yada yada. The kid's internal response was, 'Now, that's not terribly far-fetched; it's just that I didn't care.'

The clerk gave up trying to get the young man to get the matching pants, but tried one more time, suggesting that he think ahead a bit, as he would want to wear light gray pants w/ the coat when spring rolls around. Once more, the young man asked for the logic behind that statement. Again, he got a lengthy answer about fashion and investing in the whole look.

I love what his written response is, "If I want to wear my blazer with my jeans, I will.... Most people who dictate fashion are trying to sell you something."

I actually laughed out loud. Point awarded to the teen!