<p>*</p>
<p>I just noticed that the OP is from NYC. Newsflash: Dress standards in NYC (and, to a lesser extent, LA, but who cares?)*</p>
<p>I thought this column painted a pretty accurate picture of how we dress in the Northwest
ttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003125762_susannielsen14.html?syndication=rss</p>
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[quote]
I FLY from the Northwest to New York City every few years and try to imagine an alternate life as a fashionable person. I pack my sleekest clothes and adopt some urban affectations, but I still manage to look like the sale pages of the Eddie Bauer catalog.</p>
<p>The women gasp at my telltale scrunchie. The schoolgirls sneer at my 1980s backpack. The men don't notice me at all, except to say things like, "You're sitting on my coat."</p>
<p>I am the Elephant Man of fashion, trundling down Fifth Avenue in my fleece vest and utilitarian shoes. It's always a relief to return home and rejoin my clan of people who don't give a rip about clothes.</p>
<p>In the Northwest, the devil doesn't wear Prada.</p>
<p>The devil hasn't even heard of Prada
People in the Northwest don't give a rip about a lot of things.</p>
<p>They don't worry much about status, for example, and that limits their ambition. A high level of ambition requires chronic dissatisfaction with one's rank.</p>
<p>They also don't care much about money, power or appearances.</p>
<p>This seals their fate, in the world of high fashion, as bad dressers.</p>
<p>They don't see the point of the custom-tailored suit or the $400 stilettos. They would never pay a month's salary for a handbag that is so stylish, so now, that it will be hideous and dated in six months.</p>
<p>They don't consider what's "in season." They consider what season it is, as well as what's cleanest on top of the pile. And they choose their fleece pullovers, wool socks, waterproof parkas and rubber-soled shoes accordingly.</p>
<p>They look great, in context. They look healthy and relaxed and alive.</p>
<p>Just don't pull them, or me, out of our natural habitat. Plop us in Manhattan or San Francisco, and we become exhibits at the state fair.</p>
<p>Living in a fashion backwater does get old sometimes. Our co-workers wear the same ties year after year. Our only real occasion to dress up is Halloween. Our closets reflect the region's sensibilities as well as our own:</p>
<p>Comfortable instead of inspired. Good enough, rarely great.</p>
<p>It would be fun to try on a little more ambition now and then.</p>
<p>Imagine how thrilling it would be for the Northwest to possess the same thirst for change, the same pulse of dissatisfaction, that drives some people to wear ultra-trendy clothes and others to strive for greatness.</p>
<p>But then I'd have to wear pointy shoes. Abandon the ancient windbreaker. Burn the Garfield nightshirt.</p>
<p>We'd all have to attempt to be presentable and fresh and edgy, and so would our neighbors.
Trying that hard just isn't our style.</p>
<p>The other night, my husband and I went out to dinner. I was a vision in bleach-stained capris and a royal blue sweat shirt, circa 1993, with an "Icicle Seafoods" logo on the back. He was dashing in a signature T-shirt, one that transitions nicely from playing beer pong to staining the fence to celebrating a night out with his wife.</p>
<p>In New York, we would've been one fanny pack away from getting arrested for criminal bad taste. Our waitress, in a polyester Hawaiian dress with gardening clogs, would've joined us behind bars.</p>
<p>But here in the Northwest, we wore what we wanted and enjoyed our dinner and watched the people stroll past on the boulevard. They stopped to pet each other's dogs and listen to the guy playing guitar.</p>
<p>Most of their clothing appeared to be chosen at random from a clearance bin, but they still managed to look happy and healthy and alive.</p>
<p>It's a fashion statement, to be sure.</p>
<p>Just not the kind that travels well..
[/quote]
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