A while back the site Stuff White People Like did one of their many lists of objects and activities particular to Caucasians, and one of them was women wearing scarves as a year ’round fashion accessory. I chuckled because I had noticed that a lot of lightly complected females were indeed wearing scarves. Then the humor turned to annoyance as I noticed more and more scarves. The temperature didn’t seem to matter. One brutal summer day the mercury had reached 98°F and the humidity was at a tropical level when I saw a young women draped from just beneath her jawline to about mid thorax with a huge scarf. It was almost a tablecloth, and I stared at her slack-jawed in amazement. Of course, her office may have the air conditioning turned down to a temperature safe for storing meat, but not outside! Even the simple act of breathing was exertion enough on a day like that to make sweat gush from every pore. It was ridiculous, and I was bashed over the head with the old adage that some people would rather look good than feel good. Misery is preferred over comfort in the pursuit of fashion which explains high heels although high heels look good. The attraction of an extraneous piece of cloth wrapped around one’s neck eludes me.
As I noticed on the subway platform the other day, it looks like the trend has migrated to the other sex or at least to someone that qualifies as the opposite sex due to the presence of the Y chromosome.
It was not as hot as that miserable summer day I described above, but it was still in the upper 70s going into the 80s. There was no nip in the air; it wasn’t blustery, and it hadn’t blown up cold. It was sort of a last gasp of summer and entirely too warm for a scarf, but that didn’t prevent this young fellow from carefully draping his neck and shoulders with a generous remnant from a bolt of fabric. Also making the gender migration was a pair of gigantic, cheap, Jackie O sunglasses proudly adorning the bridge of his nose. Completing the look was a tee-shirt, skinny jeans and Apple® accoutrement. I guess the enormous cup of free trade coffee is passé.
I drew this fellow from memory at the YMCA as I sat on the sidelines while my son swam around the pool. I used my trusty mechanical pencil with the indigo leads, and with this sketch, I laid another sketchbook to rest.
February 7, 2013 – September 27, 2014
The paper wasn’t bad in this one although the wire binding was sort of annoying. I found myself having to bend it back into shape, but that is a small beef in that I prefer wire-bound sketchbooks to the hard-bound ones.
Below are some other sketches from that book:
Agreed. I wonder if this is some sort of weird counter-echo to the era of flared trousers back in the 70’s.
Thanks for commenting, Charlie.
In Seattle, we also have “Tights Boy” and “Skinny Jeans Boy”.
At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, men don’t wear skinny jeans or tights.