Yesterday I went shopping for clothes.
I have some jeans that, now that I think about it, are probably the better part of 4 years old, and are starting to look it too (as does much of my casual wardrobe).
Now I usually dislike clothes shopping anyway (there are so few clothes shops that cater to my tastes, and designers seem to asume that if you are as broad in the shoulders as I am, then your arms are a foot longer than mine are), and as I discussed with one of my friends a few weeks ago, when I go shopping I have the other problem of not really wanting to look for anything new, but merely wanting to find a replacement for the item which has just worn out. If it’s worn out it’s usually because I like it and have used it a lot.
So going shopping yesterday was dumb. Not only do they not have a replacement for my old jeans, but the current trend in jeans seems to be to sell you new jeans (at new jeans prices) that look like old jeans, with designer holes and scratches and wrinkles in the fabric.
To me this seems a bit stupid. If I wanted old and fashionably beat up jeans… well I’ve got them already. They’re what I’m trying to replace. If I buy new jeans I want them to look nice…. and, heaven forbid… new.
I had precisely this problem in Melbourne, buying new jeans. After I was informed that the ones I was wearing were “obsolete”, the salespeople (and my ranting had drawn a few of them over) were just perplexed that someone might prefer to own jeans for five years and let them look five years old — than to buy, “new”, five-year-old-looking jeans, for some hiked-up price.
Things were better on returning to New Zealand, however. The sole of my shoe had split, which was becoming a nuisance on rainy days (such as we have), and I walked into a store and said “do you have these?”, pointing down at my feet. They did. Then I wandered into another shop and did the same trick, pointing at my about-to-wear-out pants. Same result. Delightful.
So Mr Dave, you are not alone. On the plus side, it seems that shop-people — when not just totally confused — do find People Like Us rather amusing.