My Anti-Fashion Consultant

Every girl knows how important it is to have somebody who can help you with crucial fashion decisions.  It might be your mom, your sister, or a girl friend--anybody who has good taste and understands your sense of style.  I grew up in a whole house full of fashion consultants.  Not only did I seek confirmation of my fashion choices from my mom and my sister, but my dad even had a good eye for what made a person look good.  When I went away to college, I had roommates to ask whether or not something looked good on me, and which shoes should go with it.  

Then I got married.  

For a while, Hugh would either declare that everything looked great on me or he would claim that he had neither any idea nor any opinion about whether or not I had made a good fashion choice.  Slowly, however, Hugh's true fashion ideas began to emerge.  It turns out that my husband doesn't like any article of girl clothing that is cute, fun, or in style.  However, he is a big fan of anything that is boring, unflattering, or out of style (like, I've-had-it-since-middle-school out of style).  After many frustrating experiences, I finally learned not to take Hugh shopping with me because a typical scenario would play out like this:

I find the most adorable article of clothing I've ever seen and it's on sale so I take it into the dressing room to try it on.  When I come out to show Hugh, he says,

"It's kinda' weird."

"What about it, exactly, is weird?" I ask.

"Um, I don't know."

"But it's weird?"

"Well, is it supposed to flare at the bottom like that?"  

"Yes.  That's in style right now."

"Oh.  Well, if you really like it then you should get it."

"But you don't like it?"

"No."

I come home empty-handed.

Now if this happened once in a while, or even half of the time, it wouldn't be a big deal, but it happens every time.  Literally.  So I don't take Hugh with me to buy clothes anymore.  I leave him home with Asher.  Then I show him the things I bought when I come home and then he tells me that they're weird, but by then, I've already decided that I love them and bought them, and I'm way too lazy to take them back just because Hugh doesn't like them.

Of course, his comments about clothing that I already own still influence me sometimes.  I like to go through my clothes regularly and get rid of things that I don't wear.  However, sometimes, when I'm in the process of placing something that I haven't worn for years onto the discard pile, Hugh will say, "I really like that one!" so I'll keep it.  And continue not wearing it.  Because it definitely doesn't look good on me.  When we moved last month however, I finally got rid of everything I don't like and avoided asking Hugh his opinion.

This morning, I put on a brand new jumper for church.  It's fun and bright and flowery.  I was excited to wear it.  But, I made the mistake of asking Hugh what he thought and got, "it looks weird like that."  So I asked him what he would think if I wore it with some different things, but he still thought it would be "weird."  So, in a fit of frustration, I changed into something very boring, at which point Hugh told me that he thought I looked nice.  But next week I'm going to wear my jumper, and I'm not going to ask Hugh a thing about it.

So, does my sweet husband just have no sense of women's style?  Well, I hope that's the case because otherwise he might be trying to make me look bad on purpose.