Being Different for the Sake of Being Different

[Skunkle]

I've got an acquaintance who likes to bug me about trendiness. He says, "You need to be a leader, not a follower. YOU are a follower. I'm a leader. You need to break out and do your own thing." He says he knows this because he began wearing dressy clothes, and then I did, too.

Backstory: I've been into dress suits for years. When we used to go places around 2001 or so, I'd always be in a suit, and he'd be in ratty jeans and a holey tee shirt. These days, I'm still into suits and ties, but he wears slacks and dress casual shirts - and fancy dress shoes - EVERYWHERE. Painting the house? Dress shoes. Walking in the woods? Dress shoes. And I don't think he started getting dressy because I did, either - I just think he thinks he's someone people would be inclined to copy, and he thinks most people copy others. Why do I wear suits, and also some outdated fashions? Because I like 'em. I don't try to be (or try not to be) a leader or a follower; I do what I like.

Another example: if a car makes more than two turns he does, after him, he'll begin bitching about how they must be following him, going the way he is because he is, and essentially just choosing someone and copying their moves due to lack of originality. I think he's full of shit.

[blas87]

Skunkle, my former hipster coworker called me a "sheep" for wearing clothing from AE, Aero and Hollister (it's not my main wardrobe but I do have clothes from there), even called me "too old" to be wearing clothes from those stores, and that I should have my "own" sense of style and not wear what everyone else wears.

I don't see everyone wearing the same exact clothes I do, every day, as if we are a conveyer belt of all the same people.

Besides, he took the hipster "look" way too far and started looking like all the other confused, angry little shits who wear their jeans too tight, those striped cardigans, and secondhand clothes, ONLY wearing secondhand clothes because it's "different".

[aurelemsrealm]

Too old to wear clothes from those places? I wasn't aware there was an age limit on clothing labelled with a particular brand name.

As for me, I wear what feels comfortable to me. I'm a casual t-shirt and jeans kind of guy. I love t-shirts with sarcastic sayings, redneck humor, or something of that nature. I prefer jeans over khakis. I prefer sneakers over dress shoes. In winter, I wear flannel shirts and sweatshirts. In summer, I wear shorts and sandals. In short, I wear what feels comfortable. I could care less about being trendy. I could care less if the trends happen to overlap my style. Trends come and go, my style has been the same since I can remember.

The only time I wear something that's not me is as required in formal situations or by workplace dress codes.

[Boozy]

Too old to wear clothes from those places? I wasn't aware there was an age limit on clothing labelled with a particular brand name.

There is, and if you doubt it, try to picture a grandmother in a Roxy hoodie, or a seven year-old with "Juicy" on the butt of her sweatpants.

[blas87]

I don't think I'm too old for those clothes, but then again, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

[Boozy]

I don't think you're too old for the brands you mentioned either. You're in your 20's. You can wear pretty much anything at that age. You might as well enjoy it.

[blas87]

That's what I couldn't understand about his problem with me. I know I'm no longer a teenie bopper, but I'm not a granny wearing a Hollister tanktop and Daisy Dukes.