Uniforms have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. The primary school uniform; a simple blue collared shirt, and grey shorts. High school; a tie, blazer, and starch-stiffened straw hat. Scouts; a pseudo-militiary green shirt & shorts combination, with a neckerchief held together with the amusingly named “woggle”. Air Training Corps; an airforce-based version of Cadets, compulsory service while in High School, blue slacks, shirt, tie, navy scratchy woollen jumper, and a forage cap.
Post school I landed traumatised in the Goth scene, and subcultural uniforms became the rest of my life – something you never really grow out of if you were in a particular time in which subcultures were a thing.
And pathetically, many dedicated followers of fashion become kinkily attached to their adopted styles, and become Style-Mongers; promoting their narrow range of looking, speaking and thinking, as if all previous modes of being have been erased, and no alternative could possibly supplant the present one.
Tenacious style-mongering is always found among those too young to have experienced the inevitability of stylistic burnout. But in fact, the rise of new titillation, the peaking to saturation, the descent to tiresome, and finally the relegation to a timeless limbo of nostalgia is the fate of all styles.
Except, of course, Cubism.
Crosley Bendix – Style.
So it was when I decided part of de-cluttering life was removing daily pain-points like the way cotton t-shirts always seem to get deodorant marks in the armpits, and they’re never cut right – too boxy, or too short. Prior to travelling to Japan, I bought a few really nice marino-blend thermal shirts. They were expensive, but so much more pleasant, and practical than my normal wardrobe. Seeing the superseding model on sale recently at 50% off, I dropped the equivalent of three weeks rent on buying ten of them. I am living the uniform life. Not only uniform black, but literally the same shirt every day.
The other variable I decided to remove from life was bad sleep.
The fourth most expensive thing I’ve ever purchased – a memory-foam mattress and power-articulated bed frame.
It’s the best sleep I’ve ever had.
So there’s two major variables I’ve just edited out of life, what to wear, and will I get a good night’s sleep… Solved.