A new Kohl’s opened in our area and I, who find this the haven of good deals on socks and other stuff, wanted to see if it had any potential. Sydney dropped me off and went to pick up groceries. I asked if he wanted to come in–and I got “a look”.
I picked up a couple of things for me, a couple of things for him, and showed him the pants I bought him before we left the lot, hoping he could tell me whether I’d gotten the shade of brown right. Sydney laughed and informed me that I didn’t know how to shop. (!!!) Apparently his idea of shopping is to buy something, and if you like it, wear it a lot, starting immediately. If you don’t like it, put it in the back of your closet and wear it some years down the road when you rediscover it. If it’s really bad, wear it when you spend your days at home (I’m imagining the rejected prom dress being worn for vaccuuming days). Returning is not an option for him. As one who wants to make sure new stuff serves the intended purpose, so as not to waste money buying three things that “will work” over the years when one that actually worked would do, I find this idea of “shopping” incomprehensible. As one who wants to avoid spending any time in shopping malls or taking time away from work for clothes, Sydney finds my incomprehension incomprehensible.
All this to say, if you catch Sydney wearing something strange, blame it on one girl’s attempt to shop for clothes for a man who doesn’t help pick out, won’t return, and hasn’t revealed the secret art of shopping for men–or at least, a rule that I can deal with. Already bewildered by the subtle shades of khaki in a man’s wardrobe and appalled by some of the dress-shirt colors I’ve seen in stores, I already thought I had a learning process ahead of me–without any lessons from Sydney himself! However, I will say in Sydney’s defense, I thought he looked sharp when I met him, and I have had one classmate ask me (when frustrated by her own philosophical male’s uniform of jeans and t-shirts) “How do you get him to look nice all the time?” So maybe if I stayed out of it he would do just fine. But I would probably die of frustration from watching in the wings.
Erin
Alan Schmierer