.....you don't know where your ties are.
It has probably been at least 10 years since I've buttoned my collar.
I used to wear suits every day, way back when I had a real job, and I wore some nice ones. When I was traveling a lot, I bought 8 hand-tailored tropical wool worsteds over 4 trips to Hong Kong. They were beautiful, fit perfectly, and I hated wearing them - I'm just not a suit & tie guy. They're sitting in a quiet corner of my closet gathering dust, and they can stay there forever. I do have a blazer I'll wear when circumstances require, but that's never going to be more than a couple of times a year.
And I'm not alone. Show up here wearing a suit and you'll certainly stand out, as something weird and strange, to be approached perhaps with a bit of caution.
One of the the things I love about Fort Collins, and all of Colorado for that matter, is the informal life style. The guiding principal seems to be comfort while looking good. There's very little currency given to fashion, but we're not slobs - you'll rarely see people in a business or social context wearing sweat pants or flip-flops. But casual means casual - khakis, nice jeans, polos, shorts in the summer, sweaters if it's chilly out, maybe a cool T, that kind of thing.
(We sold a very nice home recently to a young high-tech executive, who laughed when he saw the huge walk-in closet. He said that it should be perfect for his khakis and two dozen t-shirts. And another client, an executive with a national firm, doesn't own a pair of long pants.)
What's going on here with dress is just part of a bigger phenomenon. No one here really cares what other people look like, what they believe, how they live their lives. We're a very tolerant and accepting community, and consequently, a very comfortable place to live, in many more ways than in what we're wearing.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go put my socks away for the next 6 months or so.
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