There were some good things about the 90s.  Grunge finally killed off hair bands, the internet transformed the world, and Martin Scorsese made Goodfellas.  The same decade also had its failings.  Vanilla Ice tried to sample Queen, the internet transformed the world, and Kevin Costner made any number of crap movies that should forever reside in the "Steal Me!" bins at Blockbuster.  A far more tragic phenomenon, in my eyes at least, was the complete takeover of the workplace and casual trouser market by Dockers.  I know they had a Levi's pedigree, and that led many people to believe that they were cool -- a way to flout the stuffy dress code without wearing 501s to work.  And since their introduction in 1986, can anyone name an item of clothing whose brand name has become synonymous with the item itself?  I must tip my hat to the folks who managed that ad campaign.  "They're not just pants.  They're Dockers."  Having said that, if you happened to be a male who wasn't a little pudgy, the fit of the Dockers themselves left something to be desired.  Those damn pleats.   How could anyone think that those looked good?  When I had to conform to the workplace casual attire of my old office, I instead opted for tropic-weight, flat-front wool trousers and a button-down oxford shirt.  You can't imagine what a tempest in a teacup this started.  I was actually accused of being a snobby dresser.  "How could anyone not like Dockers?"  I was asked.  But I made money, and was right more often than my co-workers about fluctuations in oil prices, so I was left to my own sartorial eccentricity -- although people often wondered how I could possibly be comfortable wearing "those clothes."  The chino therefore has always been a gap in my wardrobe that I never thought I would fill.  Then I found these.  Seven For All Mankind has cotton twill trousers that fit similar to their jeans and provide a happy medium between jeans and dressier trousers in my closet.  They still have a style similar to jeans that might make them inappropriate for your place of work, but what genius in HR decided that Dockers somehow ARE appropriate?

Target shirt, Paul Smith tie, Seven jeans, Adidas shoes, Gap belt, RayBan Wayfarers

on the ph scale

Yesterday we dropped by the British Museum to meet a friend for coffee and took some quick pictures whilst waiting for her.  I was in quite a mood before we left, feeling sort of dumpy and blah and ill-equipped for the radical change in the gorgeous sunny weather.  The limitations of my London wardrobe are becoming more and more apparent now that I'm trying to compose regular outfits.  I took most of my clothes back to the States when we visited in April to avoid having extra baggage on the next go-round and it appears that pretty much all I left myself here are a couple pairs of jeans and many different colors of my favorite Target t-shirt (seen above).  While on the one hand this forces me to get creative about wearing the same things over and over, there comes a point when all my outfits start to look alike, and not in a good way.  I'm also not allowed shopping at present, so no new pieces to break up the monotony.  

So we'll see.  Hopefully my creative juices will start to flow and the next 26 days will fly by fashion-wise.  Hopefully.  Otherwise expect to see a whole lot more this skirt and t-shirt.

(Vince cardigan, Target tee, J.Crew skirt, Coach purse, Frank Gehry for Tiffany Torque earrings, Movado watch, Navajo cuff & James Avery hammered bangle)