So i was thinking about fashion the other day. Why? Thats a good question because i dont really know. I was i guess, just merely obverving it in the wild. Because I didn't 'get it' and clearly I dont understand fashion. Actually, maybe that means i dress funny and dont really know it? But I thought about it and then by brain hurt and then I thought about it and fell asleep and finally i wrote it down, because I was frustrated that i was still thinking abou it. Why does my brain work this way? Dunno...

I get it. Really I do. About fashion. Now. or maybe I dont. Anyway, I've got it all wrong up until now. Fashion is not practical. It's not supposed to be. It's all about style, looks and perhaps ego. Take for instance last night in the gym. This dude walks in with his baseball cap on backwards, he looks straight off MTV. And it's not just in the gym, where the lack of effective practicality is obvious ie. there is no sun. In shopping malls, tube stations, restaurants - all places with a distinct lack of sun. But I get it. Another example is sunglasses. I tend to think it's just woman who are the real culprits but perhaps I'm wrong because guys also often wear them indoors. It's a style thing.

I don't know if it's my upbringing. Maybe I had a cynical upbringing. If it wasn't practical, then what was the point of it? I've been stung by this way of thinking early in my childhood: I remember when I was a kid, walking into a shop with a newly acquired ring which I admired for some reason and was wearing it on my ring finger. The lady at the till said to me, very sarcastically, "so what are you married?" I said I wasn't and it was just because I liked it.(stupid lady) Same obvious reaction came if you wore sunglasses when there was no sun, Sandals in winter and Baseball caps indoors. Go figure.

The thing is, sometimes I see all these sunglasses, baseball caps, loose, bum-showing jeans, high heels all in the same way that lady at the till saw it. Cynically. I have to catch myself thinking this way.

Times have changed. It's not about practicality, it's not about having one thing or the right time and place. It's about making it work everywhere at any time, fashion wise and getting more stuff to meet that requirement. So I can't get frustrated when I see some lady clearly uncomfortably walking in high heels or some dude wearing sunglasses on a night out. That's their choice. Practical or otherwise. Practicality is not the king of the castle any longer. These aren't the times of before, there is constant availability. Everything can be gotten online, on the high street. There is no need for getting and using what is practical when it's needed, where perhaps there was a real need for it, say in war time Britain or poverty stricken South Africa. In Britain, and throughout the modern developed, booming markets, though there is now excess. And with excess, practicality is no longer always needed. It's a back seat driver. Style and fashion is the aesthetic art of excess.

I still, wear brightly coloured running trainers to work, not because I'm going running right then and there but because they are comfortable and look cool. Practical in one sense and fashion in another. Best of both worlds or just confused about fashion? Perhaps that and more, or am I just like everyone else, including that dude in the gym.