Secrets of the soul

In honor of New York's Fashion week which occurred last week (#NYFW), I thought it would be appropriate to share some thoughts and history about my take on fashion. 

First, a background:

I was a wal-mart clothing shopper until the summer of 8th grade. What can I say? When your parents pay for your clothes, you go where they take you. My dad loves the old jeans and free-company polo, so that was about as much fashion as I'd ever know until I was 15. 
My friends and I made a daring escape to the mall to purchase clothes that we thought were cool. For the first time in my life, I was able to purchase clothes that I actually liked. During that time until the beginning of high school, I bought clothes that I thought looked good on other people. 

Pretty soon I began to buy dress shirts and ties and other such articles of clothing (at age 16!). The things I bought looked so nice, I didn't take any of them with me on the mission (two years in the hot sun of the equator would demolish them). I'd keep up with the stores and find screaming deals everywhere. It's probably the most feminine that I'd ever be.

One of the sad moments from growing up was watching a friend of mine win the "best dressed" category in the senior yearbook. He liked to wear sweats to high school....almost all the time. I was a bit indignant about this, since I 'carefully' (I use this in the male sense...carefully means 'gave 1-2 minutes of consideration') chose most of the outfits that I purchased and wore. 

Fast forward to today, and back to that feminine thing: When I started to date the woman that would become my wife, I started to find clothes for her. We'd go shopping constantly on my invitation. I know this is rare, because I see all the other men at the store whose wives dragged them there to replace the clothes they bought years before. I introduced her to Banana, Nordstrom, J. Crew, Kate Spade (more on this brand later), Saks, Bloomingdales, Calvin Klein, and all the outlet stores and brands that go with them.

Nowadays, I get more excited to find more clothes for her than myself. This is due to the fact that women have much more of a diverse style than men. I enjoy finding new outfits and unique looks in women's clothing. There is more to explore in the women's fashion than men, and since my wife is so nice, I am allowed to see the different outfits on an actual being and not just a model (actual beings are much prettier than models).
We've moved on from brands like american eagle, levis, and aeropostale (no offense to the brands) and now we dream of Burberry, Vera Wang, Badgley Mischka, and other designers. We wonder, "If we had the money, would we honestly have the guts to buy some of this stuff?" Sometimes yes. 

This brings me to Kate Spade. As a man, I love this brand. I think it has an awesome style for women. I follow them on twitter and send things to my wife about new styles they create. If I could get her anything, it'd probably be a bag or heels from this designer. 

Even as I describe this, it sounds very strange to me. But what the heck, I enjoy fashion. Consider it a guilty pleasure; in this case, the guilty part being when I feel like less of a man looking at designer dresses.