Jane had a great post on clothing the other day and of course, there was the Chronicle article and Profgrrrrl brought it up too. Why I worry about clothing I don’t know, but I do. Perhaps it’s because I sometimes make judgements about people based on the way they dress. I don’t think it’s conscious. I think it just happens. I’m less likely to do that if I’ve interacted with them via email, blogs, or chat or have read something about them so that I have something of their mind before I see the body it travels in.

More importantly for me is that I want my clothing, the way I dress, to reflect my personality. At work, I feel like I’m enthusiastic to the point of almost silliness about some of the things I do. I gesture with my hands a lot. I’m usually smiling and talking animatedly. So I want my clothing to be fun, yet professional. Kind of a hard look to manage. I tend to wear pants and nice shirts and cool, yet comfortable shoes. I’m willing to wear a skirt (and have) and heels (and have), but it’s not really me. In my comment at Jane’s, I said I was considering getting a suit. I want something kind of funky, something that is a suit, but doesn’t quite look like a suit (if that makes any sense). And despite the stereotype, Mr. Geeky thinks about this stuff on occasion too.

I have a weekend to myself ahead of me and despite my dislike of shopping–especially when I’m looking for something specific–I’m planning to go in search of some funky, but professional, clothes, perhaps a suit, to start the year off with. It feels wrong to spend time on this in so many ways.