Not Daryl Somers but you get the idea
The other day I sat down on the bus next to Daryl Somers. Well it wasn’t actually Daryl but I’d bet 5 Saturday nights of baby sitting that it was his woollen jumper. Passing it off as a case of ironic-hipster-fashion gone too far I thought little more of it until, while walking to work, I noticed several more younger males wearing mutli-coloured woollen jumpers moving their way around the city (collectively known as a Cosby prehaps?)
It’s funny how your life changes. One minute your living in London with fashionable friends, fashionably edgy musical tastes, fashionably childless and living in a fashionably cool share house. The next your sitting on the couch patting a 7 week old baby realising that you’re wearing the same clothes you wore at the birth of your nearly three year old daughter.
The 8-year-ago-me would never have let this happen. Like my fashionable (I thought) friends, I had ironic t-shirts, european jeans and an ability to spend a fortune on expensive clothing whilst ensuring that I looked like I wasn’t expensively dressed.
However at some point, in the last three years I forgot to keep up. I forgot to shop and forgot to take notice of what was going around me. Two other things happened in this time. Firstly, I think I became a little bit more like a dad. I’ve developed that ability to Dad joke like a pro, I mow lawns on Saturdays and I spend Sundays in large hardware stores that serve sausage sandwiches.
The second thing to happen is that young 20-something males lost… the…. plot!
How could you not be happy in these pants?
Before you comment, I’m aware that the second point could be considered to be a symptom of the first but I disagree. Sure fashions can change and yes, each generation is going to wear stuff that the previous generation may not understand (I am sure happy pants had people puzzled) but I really am struggling to understand the current trends in male fashion, like… meggings!
Meggings, aka mantyhose are proof that skinny jeans were a slippery slope. Although men and leggings are oil and water in my book (with the exception of cycling, as long as they are actually on the bike) I noticed this fashion trend appearing at the same time as wear-you’re-favourite-Jenny-Kee-Jumper-day.
After making my astonishment known in the office I started to question how these fashion forward fellows would feel about their clothing decisions 20 years from now. Would they be Daddy blogging about the fashionable clothes that they used to wear or, would their kids look at their Dad’s selfies on instagram and Facebook and ask what he was thinking?
Am I, now a Dad, destined to not understand fashion ever again? Is this just a warm up to what I will be experiencing 10-15 years from now with two teenage girls? And lastly, is there a slim chance that had Facebook, camera phones and digital cameras been as prevalent 8 years ago (at my fashion prime) as they are now, would I look back and wonder what the hell I was thinking?
So – how about you? Are you safe to cast stones at today’s fashion forward folk or do you have some fashion disasters sitting in your closet/photo album?
Linking up with the lounge for the topic Fashion Fails and Grace from withsomegrace.com who runs the best darn Friday Link up on the internet!
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the illiterate infant 
Oh my goodness, where to start? Of course hairstyles would have to be included, I have a passport photo that has to be seen to be believed!
And a Cosby would definitely be the collective term, or perhaps a Huxtable.
As for meggings, just so wrong. 🙂
Yes I think you’re right Lisa. A “Huxtable” is defintely the correct collective noun for ironic woollen jumpers en masse 🙂
I’m still a 20-something and I look around at my peers and think WTF are you wearing, go put some clothes on you’ll catch a cold and no I do not need to see your vagina while I am trying to eat my dinner thanks. Meggings? No, just no. If you are cold wear pants. End of story.
Yes Tegan, YES!!!
Holy moly. The be-striped megging is the LIVING END! The utter living end. I live in Dead Set Outer Suburbia so they haven’t made it to these parts, nor has the fancy jumper. I wait with bated breath! I think the megging would fit in NICELY while watching footy training on a cold night – so sensible! Thank you for linking up with The Lounge! You were quick off the mark this morning! IMPRESSIVE! From me, Sarah the erstwhile Lounge Lizard.
I have this vision of bright, wooly cardigans making their way out to your suburb
I’ve just snort-laughed all the way through this post! My journey is similar – London fabulousness for a fleeting few years of gainful employment followed by life in the KMart zone. But I agree, some of the recent fashion trends have me perplexed. Meggings and reindeer jumpers are ‘hipster’ the young folk tell me? I can’t see it. I’m kind of glad my husband is still slopping around in the ironic t-shirts he bought when we lived in London (7 years ago!). Sure, those clothes are now his Dad-clothes but it’s gotta be better than Jenny Kee!
Kmart zone has now entered the illiterate lexicon! Well done and thanks for popping by.
I’ve read that denim overalls are making a comeback for both sexes. Be afraid.
Shivers…
It’s like double denim, you can’t kill it. Ever.
I did double denim on my way to the letterbox this morning but no-one saw me.
I can’t wait until I see some dude wearing those striped meggings, I will judge & I will laugh as I walk off wearing my mummy uniform of black tshirt & black pants
I’m in the same predicament, if you could call it that. Not that I was extremely fashionable to begin with, but whoa, it’s really, really, getting strange. I don’t know if I can, or want to, keep up.
A childless friend of mine once quipped “Once you have a kid, you’re already uncool in their eyes”. Hmm. Yep, sneakers, jeans and a tee for me thanks. And I’ll shrink back to my record collection and scratch a few up as I maintain a little dignity in a bubble of my version of ‘cool’ 😛
Surely the fact you’re “Scratching a few up” increases your cool factor?
There’s a possibility that my refusal to wear crotch-shape-revealing (moose knuckle?) tights and a woolen Aztec-themed sweater may negate the positive cool factor brought on by record scratching 😦
“moose knuckle” has yo be my favourite term this week
Oh God, HOW do I erase the sight of meggings from my retina? I fear it is a case of what has been seen can never be unseen.
Don’t succumb to the lure of manty-hose Kev – they are what happens when blokes take too many of the “pink” pills! Those boys have clearly been raiding their mothers/girlfriends Blackmore’s stash and this is the result 😉
You kill me Kev!
I don’t think I could take a man seriously if he was wearing mantyhose or a Bill Cosby jumper. Seriously. And I think you need to get me to start editing your posts. I don’t mean to be finicky by I’m sure you meant Daryl not Darly (first line) 😉
If you’re offering???
I am. Because grammar and punctuation are everything. But if you ever pick up an error in my writing, this friendship will be over.
Meggings! We are most certainly living in the end times. And I think that might actually be a good thing if those jumpers are anything to go by! Even when I was 6 and got a similar one for my birthday, knitted by my Aunty, I knew it was not ever going to be fashionable! Love this post!
Oh dear I haven’t seen any meggings or mantyhose yet and guess what? I don’t want to!
Oh how far we fall Kevin. I was saying to my husband yesterday that I have no clothes to wear at the moment and need a trip to Kmart. Sad. I was cool once too. This morning I looked down at the stretchy black pants I had thrown on (worn yesterday, I was in a hurry to get the kids to my favourite place…family daycare) to notice they had food of unknown origin across the crotch.
Feeding the kids last night, I told a ‘Dad’ joke (which I am now declaring a ‘Mum’ joke). Master Two had dropped a pea on the floor….wait for it….I picked it up and said “Son, you’ve pee’d on the floor.” Then pissed myself laughing. Better by some Tena ladies today.
Hi there and welcome to the illiterate infant. Kmart does say it all and kudos on the dad/mum joke!
Moose Knuckle 😀 😀 😀
I might get me some ‘Meggings’ if it’s going to make it look like that!
Oh and a ‘Huxtable’ Yes! Or even a ‘Christmas’ of jumpers maybe??
Great article Kev!
I’m safe. I’ve always been a conservative. At the expense of being at all cool
LOL – meggings and Cosby/Huxtable jumpers are just wrong – on every single level !!!
Thanks for the laugh – have a great day !
Me
I almost died when my hubby walked out of an op shop with a jumper very similar. I just shook my head. The problem is he is not fashion forward, he just doesn’t have a clue! There is a more than excellent chance that I will NEVER see him meggings!
Meggings haven’t made it to deepest, darkest Somerset yet and long may that last – I’m seriously scared that after years of baggy jeans and bum cracks I’d find the temptation to touch a lycra clad ‘moose knuckle’ almost irresistable …
I still wear fashion disasters so I’m not one to talk – but I will – we went to a bar and everyone had those Ned Kelly beards, which is fine EXCEPT those in the kitchen. If you are meant to wear hairnets I think you can’t have those beards in a food prep area…I inspected my food very closely when it turned up. Frankly I blame Movember. It’s out of control!
Nice one Lydia. I feel similarly about the beards but they may also have something to do with my inability to grow anything more than a milo stain on my top lip.
I dont have to wonder about my fashion choices twenty years later because the full circle is here and my kids are dressing the same way I did. They look ridiculous. Its not that i dont want to step out of my boring old clothes, its just I have no desire to relive my teenage years in such horrible fluro coloured glory. I cant wrap my head around most of the newer designs and i cant tuck my ass into the remainder. So yeah, my kids look ridiculous but from memory I was really cool 😉
Hi Annu – welcome to the illiterate infant. Nice to see you memories of your youth are similar to mine!
Fashion? I sure hope that means my hair…and docs. Otherwise I wear the alternate Mum uniform. Jeans and tees…you know, roller derby ones. Oh well, at least I leave out the fishnets!
How I know I’m old is that when I look at young people (and only old people say “young people”) I want to say “Get you hair out of your eyes, pull your shoulders back, put a jumper on and PULL YOUR SKIRT DOWN”.
MEGGINGS! Dear God… has nobody mentioned the need to preserve the future of fertility to these men? A few degrees cooler and all all that? Where exactly are they supposed to hang? The future of humanity depends on men STANDING UP AND SAYING NO! HANGING ROOM ONLY!!
Your passionate desire for hanging room only is noted!
I dress pretty bad, ESPECIALLY since becoming a mum. But I tell you what, men and leggings DON’T MIX!! I thought that men in skinny jeans was bad!
Oh my! Where do I begin….I had to show Hubby this one, I wanted to test him out! I asked him would you wear a pair of Meggings or Mantyhose out n about with your kids…and I am so happy to say he said that NO he wouldn’t ever dream of going out like that. Made my day to know that he wont ever embarrass his kids one day. But then again his style of mixing colours are not the best.
I guess fashion changes – but to be honest my wardrobe is so outdated that I wouldn’t have any idea what is trendy anymore!
Meggings! Wow!
I am so out of touch with fashion right now that I would seriously consider hiring a stylist.
I’m feeling the same – I’m out of touch with fashion in a big way. Mind you I was never really on the edge of it but I don’t understand the young female preference for teeny shorts, tights and ugg boots. Worn at the same time. In public. I’m sure my ra-ra skirt and bubble skirt days were not that bad, now I look back… 😉
Okay, my bad. So not a typo on your blog post title 🙂
I will keep my mouth shut tight as I have had countless fashion faux pas moments. Just don’t tell my husband about the meggings. I’m still forgiving him for buying a pair of those stupid skinny jeans that skaters wear.
Although, I think we’ll be safe with the mantyhose…