Fashion - I don't get it.

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My interest in clothing comes and goes. Generally, I'll pick a few items that are considered "fashionable" that I can live with and will choose a number of these in different colors. When I was a teen-ager, it was oxford-cloth shirts, polo shirts and jeans, but I never cared about the labels -- I chose the ones I liked and that were comfortable for me. I wore those until they weren't readily available in stores anymore. For a long time as an adult, I wore only jeans and various colors of men's t-shirts with no wording or images on them; I thought of it as a kind of comfortable uniform. For a short time after my husband died, I played around with clothing, again choosing items like maxi-length skirts and blousy tops that I could live with and feel comfortable.

Over the past few years, I've been looking around and am frankly appalled at how women my age are apparently supposed to dress -- it's all remarkably unattractive. Many of the middle-aged women at the uni are wearing nothing but cropped pants and baggy shirts and sandals that look like they've been pulled out of the rubbish bin. It's kind of another uniform for them. I'm currently refusing to bow to it. I'm wearing clothes that suit my body and are comfortable -- dresses in bright colors and sixties and eighties styles because I know I can wear them well, lightweight dress slacks, turtle-neck sweaters in the fall and winter, shell tops in the summer. Bright, rich colors make me happy and dresses are much more comfortable than jeans when the temperatures are over 100 degrees F during the day. I've also found that clothes that are too shabby make me feel depressed, while clothes that are neat and tidy make me feel good, so I tend to avoid things that look worn to me.

I like clothes and shoes, but not the ones that would be considered stylish. Picking items that are currently fashionable isn't so much about fitting in, as about what's available. The most frustrating part of shopping is trying to get past the ugly fad items like crocs and those stupid fleece-lined boots and galoshes and blouses that cling exactly wrong on everyone regardless of age and size, but seem to be all the rage. Looking nice for me isn't about what's fashionable -- it's about wearing something that suits my body, looks neat and tidy, and makes me feel good, whether because it's comfortable or has a delicious texture that I can enjoy or has happy colors.

For me, putting together clothing is like composing a painting or organizing an essay. I try for the right mixture of bright and dark colors for balance, and to have a feel for how the different elements flow together. This is to please my own sense of aesthetics, however. I mostly avoid looking for how others react to my clothes, though I will gladly accept complements when they're offered. (Even this can be a bit fraught. Last evening, a woman told me that I have beautiful hair. I thanked her, but she looked at me oddly every time we spoke after that, so I wonder if I missed something in the interaction. We were in a children's clothing boutique where she was buying clothes for her daughter and I was a sales clerk, so I don't think she intended it as a come-on. Maybe I was supposed to respond with a complement for her?) It makes me nervous when I try to gauge other's reactions, so I mostly just ignore them and go on with my day.

I am frumpy at best when it comes to "fashion". I wear what's comfortable to me and the aesthetics mean so much less for me. But for basketball shoe though, it's another story...I got a large collection of them I rarely wear. The 6 rings Jordan I will never wear but keep it as a sentimental object.

I just don't get how it is fashionably ''wrong'' to wear a blouse low enough to see the bit on your bra that's inbetween the cups, but wearing tops where you can see the top of your tits or wearing trousers where you can see the top of your arse is fashionably acceptable. Personally I'd rather see part of somebody's underwear than see part of somebody's private bits. What's next? Men being fashionably able to walk around with their cocks hanging out but being fashionably unnacceptable to show their socks or something. That'd probably come to that soon!

How sad of people to have let fashion take over their lives.

It's not that I don't care about fashion. I do like to look nice. That's common sense, when you don't like to stand out. But all of these stupid things that they bring out, one week you're bullied for wearing something a certain way, the next week they're all wearing it that way and you're bullied if you don't. It gets so stupid. It's too much for me to keep up. And NTs seem to just know what is right and what isn't. I'm talking about women here - not so much men.

The country knows that fashion and it's stupid rules get out of hand - that's why the schools wear a school uniform.

It just tires me out. I can't cope with it. I can't even stick a chart up on the wall explaining fashion, because it changes like the wind. I have 2 choices - struggle but keep up with it all, or stand out. Hmm, tough call.

I appreciate the fashion of other people the way I appreciate good art. And I don't begrudge other peoples' interest in fashion either. But I usually couldn't care less about how I look. Most people I know seem to invest so much time working on their appearance, and I just can't relate to that at all. I'm incredibly lazy about my looks.

It's not that I don't care- I do. I check my hair in reflections all the time. But that's as much as an effort I'll make. Every time I wear clothes that are in style, I don't feel like myself, and I worry about messing up my outfit. If it were up to me, I'd be wearing stained shirts with holes in them all the time.

What I don't get is why people pay big bucks to advertise for another company like nike or the like, if I want a shirt with a logo on it they can give it to me or pay me for the advertising. This drove me crazy in school and still does today, I won't wear work shirts outside of work either, they can pay for advertising if ther want it. I'm my own brand and I wear what I want to look like.

I try to be utilitarian and as comfortable as possible in this aspect. I can dress up if the occasion requires it, but otherwise thinking about the impression your attire will make tends to nauseate me most of the time (unless it's to pleasure people I care about).

I find fashion absurd. It is interesting how the population at large judges people who dress contrary to the "norm", and yet they cannot leave the house unless they are dressed in a certain "cut" of a certain "type" of fabric. To me, that is laughable. When we look back 10 or 20 years, we do laugh at fashion, so people will wear the silliest things just because it is "in".

It also amazes me that you can walk on a beach and a woman will come by with nothing more than a couple of pasties for a bikini, and no one bats an eye - BUT, if she walked by in a bra and panties, then she is in her underwear and it is a big deal. It is ONLY the type of fabric that makes the distinction. Totally absurd.

I don't like to stick out as weird, by wearing clothes which nobody else has, but besides that, I'm not worried about what's in this month or out last month. I wear clothes until they are worn out, or until something happens to them (stain, hole, etc), which can't be fixed. The things I wear really aren't in or out of style anyway: Levi's jeans, plain T-shirts (slightly tighter-fit than regular, as that's what's always been OK for weight lifters), and work boots usually. One fashion I did get caught up in is hats. I do pay attention to what's up with wearing frontwards or backwards; flat bill or curved, etc. Just that alone seems to keep the negative fashion attention at bay, even if the T-shirt is from a motocross even in '92 or something, and/or the jeans are sitting too high, low, or loose/tight for the current craze...

Bottom line is that I won't go out of my way to be in style, nor will I go out of my way to be out of style as to annoy the fashion-conscious, at least with clothing. If I feel like annoying the fashion or status-conscious, I'll go out someplace driving my '84 Buick 4-door sedan with dull paint, and loud, clattery, smoky Diesel engine. People know I also have brand-new vehicles, so it bugs the crap out of them that I'd be seen in that old clunker when I don't have to be .

Charles

I do take a bit of time over my appearance and thinking about what I'll wear to an occasion, or even to work. But I wouldn't say i follow fashion, I have little knowledge of what is "in" or not. I wear things that I think look good. I can look eccentric at times, I've been known to wear taffeta & sequins with Doc Martens to the supermarket - but why the heck not, it makes me feel good & happy.

Today I'm wearing a pair of dark blue jeans with diamantes all over them. I've had the jeans for years, rarely worn them, and found them yesterday in an old suitcase under the bed and thought "why not?" They're comfortable and warm. And my trainers are grey and pink no-names that I got in the sale and I've attached a pair of silver wings to them (like Hermes! The messenger of the Gods, not the design brand!)

But there are other times that I'll wear skinny jeans, leggings or yoga pants with a t-shirt and jumper. And if I'm knocking around the house, I tend to wear my pyjamas or a onesie all day! But even then, most of my pyjamas are cool-looking (I think) and my onesie is a black cat costume, with a hood with a cat face & ears and a tail on the back.

I only wear make-up for special occasions and it's usually quite a theatrical style. My hair is very short and low-maintenance (though I change its colour regularly) But I always have some nail art on - currently my nails are lilac & silver glitter with neon coloured hearts gems on.

The way I see fashion is this: we all have to wear clothes, for decency and comfort's sake, so we all have to spend time shopping for clothes & spend money on buying them - therefore why not have clothes that please you, whatever that may be? Plus I'm creative in my own head, but fashion design is the only artistic thing I have any skill in, so it is a form of self-expression for me in much the way others would draw, paint, play music. And it's a conversation opener. Even in a plain outfit, I'll have a piece of nice jewellery or a charm on my bag and my nails done etc. and often people will compliment me on them and it breaks the ice and gives us something to chat about.

My current crush is a big scruffy nerd, who is usually seen in his Star Trek tops and everyone laughs at him for it, but he's like me in that he has found his own style and goes his own way, is confident to show the world who he is and doesn't care what "the normals" think - isn't that the very definition of cool?

I am very interested in fashion and I'm definitely on the spectrum. I approach clothes the way I do any other obsession I have, like music. I usually fixate on a period, say the 1930's for dress clothes and review old movies and vintage photos of how men dressed back then and pretty much replicate That style as closely as possible. For casual I prefer the mod look of the 60's especially English Invasion bands like The Who and also Motown acts like The Temptations. I just find pictures of them and copy the look. If you approach style with the same dogged determination that most aspies apply to other obsessions you'd like surprised how quickly and thoroughly you can master it.

I am male so fashion is culturally pretty different, but there is still a high interest in fashion for males. Notably, males want their clothes to express power; suits express authority, and things like brand name collared shirts (Polos), Northface jackets, and gold watches express wealth.

Personally, I don't care about fashion at all (with one exception). I prefer to wear whatever is functional based on the planned activities for the day and how comfortable the clothing would be in that context. My only exception is with suits. I don't really care about brand, fit, etc., but I do like the look of a suit and tie.