Fashion Lessons From the Unfashionable - My Cardigan Story
(Weezer - The Sweater Song)

So I'm not going to lie and tell you that I brought the cardigan back in style. In fact it's been in style for a couple of years now. I will tell you that I bought a cardigan about a year ago and got a ton of grief from my friends for wearing it. Apparently, it was a drastic change in my wardrobe from my classic jeans and rock band t-shirt look. My fashion sense has changed over the last few years as I've matured and my career has progressed. Only natural.

So the story goes -- I bought a gray cardigan about a year ago while in Hong Kong on a work trip. I thought the look was smart but still fun. I wore the gray cardigan occasionally at work and occasionally when I went out at night. You can wear it with a white t-shirt for a casual relaxed look or you can wear it with a tucked in dress shirt with a tie for a more formal look. It's a very versatile piece of clothing.

Then about a month ago, my coworker who sits in the cubicle right beside me decides to change his wardrobe. Let's call him "Tim". He said he needed a change. He wanted to dress more mature at work. So he goes out and buys a bunch of cardigans, dress shirts, dress pants and ties. He proceeds to wear this outfit everyday of the work week. For awhile it was the story of the office. People would ask me, "What's up with Tim and his new cardigan outfits?" Each day he had a different coloured cardigan to go with a different dress shirt or tie.

At first I didn't realize how this would impact me. Then came the day that I wore my cardigan to work. Every other person I spoke with said, "You look like so-and-so today." or "Are you trying to copy Tim?" So here I am with probably the biggest dilemma I've had at work since that time I couldn't decide between a burrito and a big mac for lunch. How do I wear my cardigan again without getting ridiculed and compared to a guy who was 2 years late into the cardigan game?!?

So I schemed and thought hard for a couple of days. The strategy I came up with was simple. I was exaggerating when I said he wore a cardigan everyday of the week. He probably wore a cardigan about 3-4 times a week. However he rarely wore it more than 3 days in a row. So I mapped out his cardigan wearing patterns. And on one fateful Thursday in December, I decided to make my move. It also coincided with the company Christmas party. I wore my gray cardigan with the new festive red tie I had bought while in Seoul, Korea for work. It was time for my cardigan to make it's return!

As I strolled into work, feeling great about this fantastic festive outfit I had put together, I walked by Tim's desk. BLUE CARDIGAN!! WITH A TIE!! 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! So for the rest of the day I had to endure the "Hey where's your twin?" and "You're ripping off Tim's style." comments. Amplified by the social atmosphere at our company xmas party, it was my version of a Nightmare Before Christmas.


(You could say I was "Schuestered".)

And I can sit here and argue back and forth about how I wore the cardigan well before Tim ever sported one but I have no one to blame but myself. I made some key miscalculations in my plan.

1) I miscalculated the risk of wearing the same outfit at a social event as my coworker. It doesn't matter if the chance of Tim wearing the outfit was 50% or 5%. The fact is, if it does happen, it's the equivalent to social suicide. Every woman will tell you this.

2) It doesn't matter who wears the outfit first, it matters only who "OWNS" the outfit. That doesn't mean who looks better in the outfit, because we all know I look better in the outfit. It just means who wears it the MOST. I was never going to "OWN" this outfit, it was merely a compliment to my wardrobe -- not the defining piece.

So I've officially retired this cardigan from my work wardrobe and any events where said coworker would be attending. It is simply not worth the ridicule I faced that day. Just to let you know though, I just started wearing split toe brown dress shoes with some of my work clothes. If Tim shows up to next year's xmas party sporting these, someone better be telling him he's ripping off Khiem's styles.

P.S. The new style of wearing mismatched patterns in an outfit (e.g. plaid shirt with striped tie) was patented by me back when it was a fashion faux pas. You could say I'm years ahead of my time or a fashion pioneer - but I know you won't.

A Le Dong Christmas
(Wham - Last Christmas)

Christmas is here and you can’t help but enjoy the spirit of the holidays. And when I say spirit, I’m not talking about people rushing around buying gifts for others. While it’s a nice gesture, gift buying these days is more of a routine and obligation than it is about sharing with those who have less than us. It goes without saying that we should be giving to those less fortunate but this post isn’t about being a humanitarian or a philanthropist. It’s about enjoying the season and being thankful for what you’ve got.

I love Christmas because it’s the anticipation of seeing family and friends. It’s people going out of their way to decorate their houses and trees for others to enjoy. It’s the look on a child’s face as they see their first Christmas tree. Even in a family like mine where we didn’t grow up with the luxury of spending hundreds of dollars on a Christmas tree and ornaments, seeing the Christmas tree always brought a smile to our faces.

Fact be told our Christmas tree was probably the ugliest tree on the block. It made the Charlie Brown Christmas tree look good. For starters, we didn’t have a lot of ornaments. The ornaments we did have, didn’t match. The tree itself was probably the cheapest fake tree you could buy. I remember one year in an attempt to fill the tree up, we placed all the Christmas cards we got in the mail from family and friends on the tree. Another year we filled the tree with all of our old used toys. The tree was filled with old WWF figurines, GI Joe’s, Barbie accessories and a giant yellow popple (an 80’s furry toy). I believe that was our favourite Christmas tree of all time. I’ve tried to reconstruct what our tree would look like today.



Our gifts were always a mixed bag of WTF and FML with the occasional epic gift. My favourite WTF gifts – underwear, socks, Tiffany’s CD (I might have actually liked this) and the ever popular giant Toblerone. You have to remember, being a kid, wearing underwear was not one of my primary concerns. It still isn’t actually. The FML gifts were the ones my relatives gave to me that I had to wear to school that looked ridiculous. This included a teal coloured sweater with giant polar bears on it, a full body black snowsuit, a jean outfit that included acid washed jeans and matching vest, topped off with cowboy boots. Of course you can almost forget and forgive those presents when you get your favourite Transformer, GI Joe and a red bmx bike. In retrospect having more shitty gifts always keeps you humble and more appreciative of the few great gifts in your life.

There were always those great treks to see relatives. Driving 10 hrs down to Washington DC to visit my aunts, uncles and grandparents. During those trips we would be huddled in the backseat with blankets as my dad rolled down the window every 15 minutes to smoke. You see, he wasn’t allowed to smoke with the window because 2nd hand smoke kills. However, -20 C winds blowing through the car was a mere nuisance easily cured by jackets and blankets. And since this was pre-GPS, my parents were always good for at least one argument after we got lost b/c my mom would fall asleep in the passenger seat (a family skill passed on from generation to generation) and my dad would continue to drive straight until someone told him to turn. All was well though when we arrived to a large family gathering with our grandparents happy to see us. Of course there were always tears of sadness from my grandparents as we left to go back to Toronto.

Now as we grow older, we still do the family gatherings but we don’t make those long treks anymore. At least not as frequently. Most of our holidays are spent locally with the immediate family. And our family Christmas tree doesn’t always make an appearance anymore. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was all of those years of us kids making fun and being ashamed of it. Maybe it’s because now that the kids have grown up and left the house, my parents have no one to decorate the tree for.

So this year I’m having the family over at my house for Christmas dinner for the very first time. It will coincide with relatives coming into town for my baby sister’s engagement party. It will be another large gathering and reunion. This year more than any year, I’m looking forward to buying and decorating my own tree for my parents and our relatives.

Happy holidays everyone.