Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Alex Frank writes about Fremont's Reversible Anchor Shirt.
I am a uniform guy. Neither a flight attendant nor a fireman, I am not required to wear one, and my creative job even encourages me to be adventurous. But I'm not. I wear the same thing everyday, some variation on pegged pants with oversized oxford shirts and a denim jacket. I worry that this means at best, I'm boring, and at worst, not cut out for a left-brain life. Perhaps a truly creative person would, by nature, dress creatively. If this sounds to you like a hyper-sensitive, neurotically paranoid worry to have, you would be correct. But that's how I am and that's probably how I'll always be.
For one, I hate talking about my clothes. I will, if someone prompts me, because it's polite small talk, but I like to minimize mentions of my wardrobe. And secondly, I'm just lazy, too annoyed with the morning to spend an hour picking out clothes. So I've got little fail-safe tricks to keep me boring but make me seem a bit snazzier. I don't venture too far into wild colors, but simple prints I can muster. Normally I'd wear a plain white button down shirt, but this Fremont number gives me some punch. Anchors, even when they cover a fabric like polka dots, are still demure enough to keep my staid side happy. And I always gravitate towards white and navy because they help me blend in with people in a way that red or orange never could. Is it weird that I even want to blend in? Maybe.
But what's best about this Fremont shirt, and what had me grinning on it from the very start, was the fact that it's reversible. Because when I'm comfortable with a particular item, I want to wear it everyday, to make my uniform limited to a small group of items that make me perfectly happy, to simplify everything. Last week, I wore this Fremont shirt two days in a row, first day navy, second day white. No one noticed. No one. I knew then that the shirt was a success.