A Matter of Convenience

I'm an old fashioned guy, and I like old fashioned things. I've even gone so far as to carve out a corner of the intenet to indulge my yammerings on the matter. But for all that, I do live in the world of today, and I'm not so much of a fuddy duddy to deny it completely. That's the irony, kind of like using a laptop to connect with other people who like to prattle on about old stuff...like proper cotton shirts versus the new fangled and now ubiquitous non-iron variety.

 

While I generally eschew the abominable non-iron shirt, I do have this one which I must admit has a way of making it into the regular rotation at least once a week. True, its made in Malaysia, and true, its treated with some kind of weird chemicals that pander to a fast paced sense of convenience above all else that permeates every crack and crevice of American society these days, but its a nice looking stripe and it only cost $5.49.  I could make the argument that the old term "original polo shirt" oughtn't be used given these modern extenuating circumstances, but I'm not so particularly hung up on minutia as some guys (see these comments, and these too. Sheesh! Do you guys enjoy clothes, or just needling others about them).

While I don't particularly care for the weird feeling finish of this shirt, I must admit that it fits very traditionally, with a perfectly rolled button down collar. After all, despite its modern cloth and overseas provenance, this is , after all, still a Brooks Brothers shirt. I reach for it when I'm in a hurry to change for work, when the kids have run me ragged and I just don't have ten minutes to iron. I gotta admit, having one of these things does come in handy for a dad with small kids sometimes.

I'll admit that I am enough of a fuddy duddy to starch and iron it anyway if I plan to wear it with a jacket and tie, but mostly I throw it under a Shetland crew neck sweater with a pair of khakis, cords, or flannels, when all I really need is a bit of collar sticking out to show the world I'm not a t-shirt kind of guy.

Bowing to convenience in an occasional pinch is fine. It is only when convenience becomes the sole factor in one's decisions that abject laziness begins to creep in.

Tread lightly in the non-iron world.