Man Dressing

There are few men I know who would allow me to dress them. And I'm not referring to the physical act of dressing them, but rather the buying or picking out of the items to dress in. Although I don't think there are very many men in my life who would be willing to let me dress them in the literal sense either. Ahem. Anyway, two sentences in and I'm already off topic.

Picking out clothing is kind of a personal thing, so I don't generally force my personal taste on anybody and certainly not on a guy. The only person who seems to enjoy me buying clothes for him is my father. If I buy a shirt, he lives in it for weeks on end afterwards. Once I bought him turqouise socks with a yellow and pink argyle pattern on them for a joke. They were hideous, and he wore them almost every Sunday to church for several years. I'm still not sure if he really liked them or if he was enjoying torturing me, but either way they brought him great pleasure.

My mom and I have been trying to update my dad's wardrobe. In preparing for my brother's wedding in a few weeks, we went through his closet. He's had the same shirts for 20 years or more. And his ties...good God they were the most hideous things I'd ever seen. Paisley, broad stripes, awful colors...you name it, it was there. There was only one among them that was passable. So I hatched a plan. Since I had a new dress for the wedding, new shoes, and even a new handbag and my mom had a new dress, new shoes, and new accessories, my dad deserved new stuff to wear for the wedding too.

Since I'm very fond of his suit (he looks fabulous in it), I decided to find him a new shirt and tie to go with his suit. Saturday I trekked out to the Lincolnwood Mall to see what I could find. Kohl's had a sale on some really nice short-sleeved, button-up-the-front shirts. After three phone calls to find out what size he needed and what color he'd like, I finally bought one. Then I had to match it to a tie. You'd think that would be easy. It's really not. I had about six in my hand at one point all at $25 to $40 a piece. Why is a tie that expensive? I don't pay that much for a shirt most of the time, and a tie is smaller and used much less often. Anyway, off topic again.

I stumbled across a line of ties designed by the late, great Jerry Garcia. Well, I don't think he designed the ties per se, but the designs on the ties were his. I found one that match my dad's new shirt pretty well. It's not a perfect match, but I somehow thought it would be cool to have my dad walking around wearing Jerry Garcia's artwork whether it matched his shirt exactly or not.

While I was out, I also picked up another polo shirt for him, because my mom thinks he's cute in polo shirts (he is, of course), and Spongebob Squarepants pajama bottoms. He'll get those for Christmas. I spent too much, but my dad has spent so many years providing for his family and giving us whatever we need, that it's nice to spoil him for a change.