A decade under the influence (of pleats)

Sometime last week, around the same time as I was signing up for a gym membership in the hope of finally getting into shape, I realized that there were other things about my life that could use some alteration. In particular, I've been doing the whole t-shirt/khakis combination for about ten solid years now; I've always worn little more than t-shirts and my jeans period only lasted between the middle of seventh grade - when I finally gave up sweatpants after Melvin Baker threatened me with a pantsing - and the middle of ninth grade, after which point I was a khaki man. In other words, I hadn't put on a pair of jeans in ten years.

Until now. When I thought about upgrading my wardrobe (at least a little bit), I offered Alma the chance to help, partly because she's always held certain opinions about my clothing choices (#1: Pleats = evil) and partly because I have minimal fashion sense myself. We went to the Gap and she assisted in picking out the following:

1) A pair of jeans
2) A light sweater
3) A black hooded sweatshirt
4) A gray t-shirt

Yes, #4 is a t-shirt, but it's one more designed to be worn with other stuff; it's just a solid color, as opposed to most of mine which have graphics on them. Anyway, it was a start. Of course, these four items cost $150. If you're wondering why I didn't buy anything but t-shirts before now, it's because wearable sweaters cost fifty bucks.

At any rate, today I wore the sweater (over a black t-shirt I already had) and jeans to work. The outfit was kind of a hit. First of all, everyone who was told about me suddenly owning a pair of jeans went crazy; my dad called Alma his hero for getting me into a pair. My boss noted the jeans ("You don't wear jeans, do you?") and said that the outfit was a good look; I ran into Karen on the bus, who later commented favorably to Drew.

Of course, tomorrow it's back to t-shirts, more or less; I don't have a ton of new clothes yet, partially because it's expensive, and partially because I don't want to shell out when there's the chance that I could lose a significant amount of weight in the next six months or so. I may give the jeans a continued shot, though. I'm probably going to have to pair them with a belt - they're "loose relaxed fit" so they kind of hang off my butt a lot, which isn't that big a deal but can be a little annoying. Also, khakis have bigger pockets. But jeans would definitely be warmer in the winter (though of course that's conveniently ending). I'll give them a fair shot, anyway.

Also, can we get a few opinions in here on pleated pants? Alma and Karen swear they're the work of the devil; Drew and I don't get the big deal. My mom must not either since she bought them for me consistently; perhaps she can shed some light on the benefits of pleated pants. For the record, the jeans do seem to make me look slightly thinner in that area, but it's pretty marginal at the moment.