So internet, what do you do when you have a husband who works in a very casual office environment (I'm talking a step above pajamas here) and needs to attend a semi-formal function with very little notice?
For example, suppose your husband and his co-workers were in the right place at the right time and did something that
SAVED SOMEONE'S LIFE? Doing what hopefully anyone would have done, but they just happened to be the ones who did it. (If you are going to die suddenly, you might
actually want to be in a roomful of engineers. They may have social issues, but they do know how to problem solve.)
And what if, perchance, the
administrator of the VERY LARGE GOVERNMENT AGENCY your husband works for hears the story and wants to give your husband an Award of Bravery? And what if they are flying very important people from this large agency in from around the country to attend the awards ceremony?
So the usual office attire of Levis and Nikes is not going to cut it.
And then, imagine if pretty much everything else in your husband's closet either has the name of a college emblazoned across it, or has a Dockers tag. (Except for that suit he bought 10 years ago for a wedding that has now been devoured by moths because it hasn't been worn in, oh, say 10 years.)
Go Flyers!And did I mention, we had about 2 days to find suitable clothes for this event? So ordering online was pretty much out of the question. Because I would normally go to
Land's End or
L.L. Bean.
Fashion emergency!Where is
Carson Kressley when I need him?
creditWhat is a guy to do? Not that much, actually, because his wife is in charge of fashion.
If a woman had this problem, she could pull a Sharon Stone and wear a Gap t-shirt and maybe pair it with a really striking statement necklace. Or, in a pinch, she could pull something semi-fabulous together from the aisles of
Target.
creditThe statement necklace really wasn't going to work in this situation. (And would probably be obscured by those geeky security badges said husband has to wear.) And I tried
Target. It's not nearly as fun in the men's section as it is in the ladies' section.
Here is what we did (should you ever find yourself in such a situation).
Shop the closet.We actually found, DEEP in the closet, a pair of pants that, although they were Dockers, were part of a nicer line than your typical khakis. I can't find them online (they are probably 10 years old too) but they are charcoal grey, cuffed and look like wool (but are actually cotton).
credit
Go with a sport coat.I looked online for a sport coat that would work with the pants. It had to have a pattern because it would never actually match the pants. I was searching for something tweed-ish, but no leather patches on the elbows. Something like this
creditI found a few. Our local mall is extremely limited (no
Eddie Bauer,
Joseph A. Bank,
Banana Republic or
J. Crew) and we didn't really have time to go anywhere else. So we were basically looking at
J.C. Penney and
Macy's.
I found exactly what I was looking for on
J.C. Penney website. And I could even check the inventory at my local store. Unfortunately, they didn't have his size. But a quick scan of the sale rack at
Macy's found exactly what we needed. And on sale! Which is good, because this blazer will probably get eaten by moths before it's worn again too.
Or at least, I kind of hope so, because the only other thing I can think of that he might need it for is a funeral. So the moths can have it!
(Speaking of funerals... let's avoid them by
CHECKING YOUR SMOKE DETECTOR BATTERIES! Did you do it yet? I'm serious!)