If clothes make the man, then I have never made it. Not that I didn’t have the opportunity. My father was a retailer–women’s ready-to-wear. My mother was fashionable and fashion conscious. Both my parents always dressed well. Our home movies show me in a camel hair coat as a toddler. I puked all over it on my first road trip. That could not have been premeditated but it did foreshadow my relationship with clothes for most of my life.
After college where nobody seemed to care about what they wore I lived on a kibbutz for seven years where even white collar job holders often wore blue collar work clothing– blue shirts, blue pants and black work boots. My entire kibbutz wardrobe could have fit in a shopping bag.
Afterward during my career in television news I was based in Los Angeles where Levi’s and sports shirts were almost de rigueur at the office and in the field and I happily followed suit so to speak. Costco became my outfitter and just how much so was apparent one day in a phone call to a Costco executive I wanted to arrange an interview with. I told him I was a Costco member.
“How many things are you wearing right now that you bought from us?” he asked.
“Hey, my pants, my underwear, my socks, my watch… maybe my shirt,” I answered. Yeah, I was a walking advertisement for the brand.
My colleague at ABC News Brian Rooney was my polar opposite when it came to apparel. Of course he was also an on camera correspondent and I was an off camera producer so how he looked really mattered but how I looked eventually must have mattered to him, too. It started with shoes after I was diagnosed with a foot injury called plantar fasciitis. The orthopedist’s office had another description for it– “Topsiders Disease”, named after the shoes I had been wearing for years that had no arch and as a result had likely inflamed mine. “You’ll never regret buying good shoes,” Rooney advised me at the time.
The next day he came into my office and threw a piece of paper in front of me with a more comprehensive set of guidelines. Its title was “Peter Imber Dress Code” and although it didn’t instantly change my life, it did immediately change my footwear buying habits. I purchased my first $200 pair of shoes. They were for golf and at the time the most comfortable shoes I had ever owned.
I left Costco behind in 2010 when my wife Jo and I moved to Maine. Actually, Costco left us behind as well since the closest one to where we live now is about a four hour drive. But when one retailing door closes another one opens and in Maine that’s abundantly clear which one. Maine’s state tree is the pine. Maine’s state clothes tree is L.L. Bean and quickly, I was all in. Free shipping, a generous return/replace policy and a flagship store open 24/7, what’s not to like?
L.L. Bean had it all. Shirts and pants and sweaters… But was I again falling into my previous Costco mode? So, at my wife’s urging I branched out. I bought a pair of dress khakis from Orvis that I even dry-clean. I have a beautiful shirt and tie from Brooks Brothers and three handsome sweaters purchased at Bloomingdale’s. As for shoes, I buy Ecco and Merrell and just discovered Hoka. I value comfort and quality now and pay for it. And I own not one but two parkas from The North Face. Wearing the same parka six months of the year gets boring even for me. Have I finally evolved as someone with a sense of or at least an appreciation for style?
Hmm… I guess I’m not all the way there yet. Yesterday, my wife pointed out and not for the first time that I have an abundance, no make that a preponderance of plaid and stripped shirts hanging in my closet. So, there’s work yet left to be done and before coming up here to my computer I realized my clothing choices may just have narrowed once again.
As I write this I am wearing what might be called the “Full Carhartt”– sweatshirt, jeans, socks… And yes, I’m quite comfortable. The wind is whipping and it’s cold outside.
I guess for now, if I’m not a fashionista, I’m at least a Fashion Nor’easter!
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