American Boy: Bright Shirt and OP Cord Shorts (1985)


Figure 1.--

It all started in 1985, I was only 9 years old when I was asked by my mom to make a decision. She asked if I would wear this striped short-sleeved shirt. To this day, I still don't know what you call it, Lacoste or Izod. [Note: HBC would call it a rugby shirt.] When I was about 6 years old, my brother wore this same shirt. I thought, at that time, how cool it looked (wow, big mistake). I guess you could say that as a kid, this time at the age of 9, I was submissive, thereby not wanting to disappoint anyone, so I said yes. Now, the Tan (or khaki) & red stripe shirt with white collar & blue alligator logo could very well be described as a catalyst for a school uniform. It was. Don't quite know the fabric, but the fabric where the stripes were was silky or made of cotton, again, not sure. The collar was rougher. It had the biggest flaw in fashion trends. This shirt was the only shirt of any kind that matched only one color of pants &/or shorts. Color coordination was obvious. There was no other possible combination. OP shorts came in aide range of colors. Now, fast forward to the summer of 1986, I was 10 years old during this family picture. The day of this picture, I was carefree until this one Saturday evening. We were about to go out for the evening. It was time to get dressed, and then there it was. On the bed was this shirt and shorts. Wow, if I thought this shirt was bad with pants, corduroy shorts made it worse! I never felt so embarassed in my life. I imagine others would say, there is nothing wrong with this. But the fact was I was powerless, thereby, I had no choice. That would have been true if I went to a school where school uniforms were required. But beyond this family picture, wearing this in public made me feel out of place, feeling overdressed. All the other males in the photograph wore long pants. I do't know which was worse, that brightv short or those short cut short panrs. In a way, this was a true definition of fashion that was going out of style. Thankfully, in 1987, this outfit no longer fit. Hopefully, this color shirt will never come back to fashion, if it does, I will never wear it again.






HBC





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Created: 6:04 PM 11/3/2009
Last updated: 9:08 PM 1/16/2010