Flying by the Seat of Your Pants

It was Memorial Day. I spent a good portion of the day at Macy’s, H&M, Daffy’s, The Gap, the Men’s Wearhouse, Loehmann’s, Morris Brothers and Filene’s Basement trying to find a pair of shorts for my companion. Given the dearth of stores, items on sale, and depth of stock, one would presume that there would be many options, styles and colors. They would be most assuredly wrong. If there is a major underlying complaint about retail it is “sameness.” Retailers, for the most part, are all copycats, simply following the pack. We were looking for a pair of dress shorts, formerly known as tennis shorts, not the Holy Grail. I guess tennis is passé. If you are in the market for short pants that come down to below your knees, look more like the culottes or peddle pushers your sister wore in 1978, with cuffs/hems that are nearly as wide as the waist, in khaki and olive, with 18 Velcro pockets (12 of which are too tiny to hold more than a matchbox truck), all the stores we visited have plenty on hand. In fact, it’s all they had on hand. If you are under age 22, like the urban, sloppy boy look, or are a gangsta rapper into B ball, you should have no problem. The marketplace is beckoning.

You know you are in trouble when the extra 15 percent off coupon you cut out from the Sunday New York Times insert the day before goes unused at Macy’s; as the message directed towards you is crystal clear: we have nothing for you. I mean but nothing. Unfortunately, Macy’s purchasing sentiments places them in good company. I will risk sounding like an old curmudgeon, but the world is filled with adults too. Adults, who shop, eat, go to the movies and engage in all the same activities that “young people do.” We have money and disposable income too. We don’t want to dress like a high schooler. We are adults.

--Ron Knoth, Guest Blogger

P.S. Check back next week for another blog entry from Ron, who says that if he had his own blog, he'd call it “My New York Diary of Design and Disaster…My Mostly True Adventures in Retail."

 

Comments

[Ron Knoth]

Dear Reader, you're quite correct abouth plethora versus dearth. You're also absolutely correct about Brooks Brothers and Paul Stuart. Unfortunately, we were shopping on a budget. Someday I might write about Brooks Brothers who I am deeply indebted to. I have a very sweet story about them.

Ron

[tommy s]

Ron,

I think you meant plethora rather than dearth. Also, I think you meant to shop at Bergdorf's Brooks Brothers, Paul Stuart. They have nice, grown up walking shorts.