The threads make the man

Last night some friends and I were lamenting the high cost of looking good. Clothes have always been expensive, and metrosexuality is making men's fashions even costlier than they used to be.

And looking good is about more than cash. There are thrift stores, after all. But there is so much trash at them that they require an obsessive-compulsive approach to shopping for which one doesn't always have the time. (Networking also can be important to thrift shopping: thrift-store clerks who are also friends have been known from time to time to set items aside.)

But even if one has the time or money to shop, there is still the problem of taste. After all, it's possible to dress expensively and still look like a dope.

The other day Ereck had to remind me that I am a Southerner, and therefore some important part of me ever has been and always will be a preppie. That comment, in combination with last night's discussion, made me realize something: if I could afford it, I would simply wear Brooks Brothers suits all the time, everywhere I went. I would even wear them around the house, like Robert Young at Saturday breakfast.

Preppie fashions are helpful to sartorially uncertain people like me. Like western wear, which I also favor, preppie limits options. I do better with fewer options.

Still, in the absence of real fashion sense, I wish I could just fall back on good tailoring. But this costs money.

Sigh. Someday.