Echarpe rouge homme

This afternoon I indulged, from the can't-believe-the-semester's-over-but-need-to-get-back-to-work-soon-anyway-but-oh-it's-nice-to-just-read-novels-with-a-poodle couch, in a wanty: a red scarf like the ones French men wear (see the first Google Image result for french man red scarf, although the men I'm thinking of tend to be a bit older, the scarves a bit less chiffon-ish). This required a certain amount of research, namely establishing a) that for anything this basic/specific, you need a department store, not a thrift store/Uniqlo, and b) that in this day and age, there's no need to actually go to a department store in person, no offense to the Macy's in the Quakerbridge Mall. We'll see. I at any rate plan on not losing this winter scarf, as I did the previous two, because this semester I plan on not waking up at 6:15 to cross state lines and teach a class, reserving all awakeness for that enterprise.

This wanty, though, made me think of how my various and ever-evolving fashion personalities often end up requiring a physical appearance unlike the one I possess. Haut bourgeois Parisian socialist dude of a certain age, philosophe... that's not me. Nor am I anywhere close to the height clothing is generally displayed on - menswear-inspired or not, clothing always looks different on 5'2". Nor am I gamine, etc., but this one - 50ish Frenchman - is a particularly long shot.

But it doesn't exactly bother me - I don't want to wake up with a different build, let alone a different gender-and-age-and-nationality. And when I think of styling this scarf (of utmost importance now that I'm back to being hermit-in-the-woods, at least until finishing this dissertation), I picture clothes I own, which are consistent with this theme, but which are not really drag of any kind. Like a fitted camel sweater, or coat.  Or a white button-down shirt, but not ala BHL, more of a rounded-collar, discreet-Peter-Pan look. With clothing, I never do just want some thing in isolation, because it's nice or cute or whatever. There's always, always a concept.