Fashion Trip

Unless books count, I rarely go shopping for myself. Especially clothes-shopping. Especially especially shopping for a suit. I remember just one other time in my life that I went suit-shopping, which explains the déjà vu feeling to our trip to Men’s Wearhouse in Woodland Hills yesterday afternoon.

Growing up, I wore hand-me-down dress clothes, which will sound odd to those who know I didn’t have an older brother. They didn’t come from my dad either, who not only never wore dress clothes, rarely even wore a shirt. No, my mom worked at a church, so my hand-me-downs came from hands I didn’t know. Somehow, in my early 20s, I wore suits when I coached high school basketball games, but I suspect that must have been from the same source as the rest.

Anyway, eventually I had a brief foray in the insurance business, and my very classy state boss told me in the nicest possible way that if I wanted clients to see me as a professional, I’d need to dress like one. (Hence, my only suit-buying expedition prior to yesterday.)

Later, I started preaching. When my old suits started to wear out there, my great friend, Roland, surprised me one day by purchasing two suits for me. I lost those in Hurricane Katrina, and after that disaster, my friend Marcie’s sister bought me two suits as well. Some people are just nice.

Well, I brought those two post-Katrina suits to Pepperdine, but with the combination of watching what I eat and climbing up and down these hills and stairs I am back into a shape I’ve not been in for a long time – a shape that doesn’t work with pretty much any of my clothes any more. And since no one has volunteered to buy me two new suits – and since I am about to try to convince legal employers that I am an actual professional – my old boss’s advice returned to my brain and told me I should go shopping.

So, we did. And it was good. Thankfully, the oldest salesman (Bob) approached me first and took care of me the entire time. I would have been embarrassed to have worked with the young salespersons, but a kind older man’s advice was more up my fashion alley.

So I have purchased two new suits for the second time in my life now. Maybe these will last until the old folks’ home. I wonder if you have to buy new suits there, too?