did i say before that i dislike leather shoes?

01.
maybe dislike is already too strong a word. what i have is a conscious and active avoidance of tanned cow hide used as formal wear.

people may have different reasons for not wanting leather dress shoes. a common and lofty reason (which i have much respect for but i don't share) would be that it's their protest against cruelty to animals. mine's more a matter of aesthetics: i find it very difficult to find a design that i actually like.

some time back, me and the then-boyfriend were looking at bed frames and i told him that i'd rather we just get us a mattress. bed frames come in all sorts of shapes with various headboard ornaments, but it's rare that i find a bed frame that i genuinely find appealing. if i find one, it's probably a frame with very little ornamentation.

i follow similar aesthetics when picking dress shoes: i prefer minimal cuts and stitching and hardly any decorative elements like tabs and such. i'm also particular about the shape of the shoe (i don't like my shoes too pointy or too square-tipped).

and of course, as with other formal wear for men, minor differences in design in dress shoes could make a lot of difference, just as a inch or less could make a difference in cuffs or ties. it annoys me to no end, how these trivial details could nonetheless weigh so much when picking dress shoes. plus i couldn't wear dress shoes all the time, like say, if i suddenly had an urge to trek to divisoria on a rainy day (which i already did before). but you never know when you will need to wear them, friends told me when i tried to worm myself out of wearing dress shoes. but the thing is, i hardly do.

02.
the other day, i was with two co-workers on the way to the pantry. us two guys were discussing the difference between men and women's clothes with the other girl and us guys pointed out men's wear could be so limited.

"you have shirts," (t-shirts) "and polos." (dress shirts)

"and polo-shirts" (collared shirts), the girl added.

and that men's clothes tend to be more expensive than women's clothes despite the lack of variety. a decent shirt for a guy could cost around 400 pesos and above. women could get decent blouses at 100 pesos. i think it's a good enough argument to support the fight for better gender equality. or at least for better men's wear.

03.
somebody was selling a copy of alan moore's lost girls in ebay.ph. i was tempted to buy it but i realized that i could order the same thing to online comic book stores and have them delivered to US-based relative and not spend as much money. granted, it'll take months before i could get my copy but that's just a minor hassle.

and anyways, i still have a long reading list to trim down.


on the other hand, i'm attending a wedding tomorrow where i will be part of the entourage. i still don't have a decent pair of slacks and shoes and i'm more concerned with gorgeously wrapped pornography from the alan fucking moore. why am i not panicking?