Gold watch, diamond ring, I ain’t missing a single thing

So I have to wear dress clothes to work for the first time since 2001. The jobs I have had since then have all involved casual attire, and I never felt that my productivity was compromised by the lack of a collar on my shirt. I even had a disagreement with my boss those many years ago about professionalism. It is my contention that my ability to think and be a general computer drone is independent of the crease in my pants, or I suppose the material therein. Anyway, now that I am working downtown it is expected that I wear dress pants, shoes and shirts; though apparently no one wears ties here, because “it’s too hot for ties”. So I dusted off my various dressy items and am wearing them to work.

The fascinating thing that demands cultural adjustment is the subtleties of fashion. I have no idea if I am in fashion or out, or rather, it is clear that I am not at the pinnacle of the aesthete but I don’t know how far down the hill I am. In my life in Saskatoon I have a pretty clear understanding of where I conform to good style and more appropriately, where I don’t; but the point is that I know. The examples that I have before me are my colleagues in the office. They all wear tight pinstriped pants, flashy open necked shirts with French cuffs and long pointy shoes, sometimes in the form of boots. I have been to the shoe store but I still can’t get into the idea of wearing pointy toed shoes. I feel that I would look like the Iron Sheik, and being a Hulkamaniac, I can’t endorse that. Notwithstanding the fact that I would trip on the stairs everywhere I went. When I look at my coworker I can’t help but think he looks like a dandy. Sort of like a business version of Prince in Purple Rain (mostly the boots). Perhaps in time I will come to look at this style favourably, but for now it feels off. When my brother moved to Vancouver he left behind a shiny shirt from his days as a bartender doing the hippy hippy shake at the happening night spot, the Odeon. I once wore it in Saskatoon and felt that it was a little too shiny and took it off. Here though, I have adopted the shiny shirt and feel that most likely it is not unfashionable. My square toed dressy loafers are a little square, I’m sure, but I will stick with them until I feel I know the cultural terrain a little better. I am still on the lookout for a nice Gordon Gartrell though.