Boys to Men

 

Kevan Hannah - Student 

Plaid Shirt - Express

Black Shirt - Broken Social Scene concert

Jeans - Buffalo

Shoes - Steve Madden

Cuff - Guess

Belt - Le Chateau

Bag - Esprit

Glasses - Ray Bans

 Today ladies and gents, we will talk about guy's clothes. It's a topic which is relevant because it affects almost half of the population, so all of you XY chromosome kids (and the XYs that want to look like them) listen up!

I have a long and winding theory about the outfits that boys generally wear here in Winnipeg. We here in the 204 are fortunate enough to have quite a few clothing suppliers available sprinkled around town; however, most of the stores out here for guys are your typical Abercrombie and Hollister types. These stores are great, by all means! I myself enjoy the comfortable fit of a loose  pair of pre-destroyed denim as much as the next gal; but I must warn you folks, these stores are a slippery slope of fashion marginalization. 

How you may ask? Well, it has come to my attention over the years that these stores have a firmly established look that they've been sticking with over quite some time. It's an aesthetic that looks something like this:

abercrombie.com, hollisterco.com

You know the kind of beachy relaxed look I'm talking about here. What you may not be aware of is that these clothing stores act as a kind of beartrap for their unsuspecting consumers. Their advertisements lure you in with promises of blonde hair and piggybacked laughter.

Pictured: Evidence.

But take heed! For they swiftly trap you forever, like a straight-toothed Californian animal at the zoo by making absolutely every item they sell look cohesive together. You literally cannot go wrong when picking any article out from these types of stores. Even when trying to select the right size, the store does all the work for you. Aside from matching everything, almost every item aside from the flip flops contains a level of stretch to it and will perfectly fit your every skin-covered body part. Which, again, is great! Why wouldn't guys on the go want to look as though effort was put into an effortless look? It's a win-win!

The onnnlllyyyy downside is that a huge portion of Winnipeg boys are following this easy-to-follow formula, and after a while everyone starts looking the same.

myspace.com

Guys and gals, if you have found yourself trapped in the fashion beartrap, you're not alone. The good thing about all of this is that it becomes relatively easy to avoid this fate, with a very simple solution. 

All you need to do is expand your shopping horizons and shop elsewhere! Travel deep into the most unvistited areas of your city like a modern day scavenger who scavenges for plaid, not food. This genius concept will, however, require you exert a teensy bit more effort, but I guarantee the results will be well worth it. 

Some places to check out when scavenging:

wikipedia.org

piclund.com

And for the more adventurous:

powellriverbooks.blogspot.com

Boys, I'm also aware that your appointed section in stores usually pales in comparison to the girls section, and for this I say: shop online! It's a surefire way of knowing that almost no one else in the city will have the same article of clothing as you, to avoid those awkward same-outfit-at-the-party crisis situations we teens are facing nowadays. There are tons of great clothing websites out there, just make sure they have a solid return policy, and that they're not going to charge you more than the clothes to ship to Canada (or wherever it may be that you reside). Shopping online is easier and safer than ever, and somehow manages to require much less effort than physically going to the Hollister store to stock up on polos yet again. 

Happy shopping boys!