P.A.Q. Volume 2

I am pleasantly surprised to find that people have been commending me on my hair post. I was actually pretty reluctant to post it, but sometimes I forget just how interesting I am to absolutely everyone. I said I'd talk about my social life next, but that was a bitter lie told by a cruel, deceitful man.

Q: Where did you get [item of clothing]?

A: 90% of the time the answer to this question is H&M. The reason why is a little circuitous: I started getting this question a couple of years ago, and realized that nearly every damn time it was being asked by someone who liked something I'd bought from H&M. So, naturally, I started shopping more at H&M. A lot more. Like, if I say I'm going clothes shopping, that's where I'm going.

It's not that I don't like variety; the other 10% of clothes people tell me are nice is almost exclusively from Express. In fact, I desperately wish my wardrobe was more mixed but I am really not a great shopper. I find it difficult to find clothes for myself without getting overwhelmed either by too much choice or lack of choice and just going home.

Here's the thing. I goddamn love fashion. It is, as far as I'm concerned, an art like any other, and that's how I approach it. I think the coming and going of trends is really interesting, and I also think guys get the total shaft when it comes to clothing because women have a billion options and we have a handful of styles to choose from and most of them look dumb.

That's besides the point, though. I think it's amazing that people can dress in so many different ways. I used to dress like a skater, although I have not once skated on my life. Mostly I just looked good in baggy clothes, and skater companies have cool logos.

My first couple years of college, however, I ended up losing roughly 40 pounds. That's a pretty big change, and makes fashionably baggy clothes look like potato sacks. So I embarked on a Phil Level Up Initiative (not what I had it named back then, but I've forgotten) to redo my look (this is also when my hair grew out and started to curl for the first time), and a big part of this was refining my wardrobe. As I did this, people started to comment on it. Now, in 2009 going on 2010, I get complimented on my clothes pretty often, which means either a whole lot of people are trying to not make me know I look like a bloody fop or I'm actually dressing pretty nice.

I would say my style is very bipolar. I like to either be classy as shit or rocked out and crazy, but I'm way too self-conscious to really go as far as I'd like in either direction. The truth is I feel like I don't go anywhere where I can really do it; I'd feel like an idiot going to UConn looking all fly (though I still do it occasionally) and I'm not edgy enough nor do I go anywhere cool enough to wear lots of rocker stuff.

So mostly I occupy a gray area between the two, and wear increasingly more purple as I realize that everything I own in that color is my favorite garment of that type. I actually have to actively resist it because I'd honestly be fine wearing purple and black for the rest of my life.

It could be said I used this question as an excuse to springboard into a discussion on my feelings of fashion at large. It could be said. But it wont.

You've been warned.