Thoughts on fashion and Madonna...

The weather here is strange. One day it's terribly hot and the next it's quite chilly. Today it's chilly. I wouldn't go so far as to say cold, but it's certainly cold compared to how hot it was yesterday.

Although I have enough warm clothes for these strange summer cold fronts, I have to fight the urge to go to the local UniQlo [a lovely clothing store where you can get very nice stuff made out of a fantastic magic fabric that not only dries really quick, but also repels stains] and restock my wardrobe. I had some time to kill before work last week and spent it in that wonderful establishment. I found out that I wear a size 67 pants. [that's centimeters, but I'm not sure if that's the length or waist... Hopefully it's the length. I'd hate to think I had a 67cm waist...] What I find so amazing about the clothing they sell is that it's not only really cheap [$29 for a really nice pair of dress pants] but it's made quite well. It's not the cheap shit you'd get at Walmart, despite the fact that the prices are the same. Unlike Walmart crap, the fabric has some substance to it--for lack of a better term. UniQlo is one of the reasons I think this is a great country.

Of course, I was told that women don't really shop at the UniQlo unless they're poor. Image is everything here. Most housewives--and there are a lot of them--use their money [or their husband's money] to shop at the high-end, name brand places which only leaves enough money for their husbands to shop at UniQlo. Supposedly you can watch husbands & wives when they're out in public & the husbands look like bums in comparison to the wives. UniQlo bums. Of course, I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference.

I do have enough of an eye for fashion to be able to tell that most of the people here--especially girls in their 20's--have no idea what looks good and what doesn't. The girls here dress like Madonna in the early 80's. Layers of tattered tank tops, short skirts with leggings underneath, and hideous pumps. Each layer and section of body is a different color. Red and white hat, pink and white tank tops, green skirts, black leggings, blue peds--which are big here--and [UGLY!] yellow pumps. I don't even think these colors go together. [and I am convinced that my outfits don't clash as long as I'm wearing a pair of socks that tie everything together!] Of course, the trucker hat craze has caught on here, so on top of all of that they're wearing brand new trucker hats cocked to the side that usually have some band logo on them, a la Rolling Stones or Aerosmith. It's really quite awful. I'm going to start taking pictures.