Shirts

Buying new business shirts is giving me the shits. I usually wear a shirt until the collar frays, and then it is time to buy a new batch, because it means every shirt in the last batch that I bought a few years ago is about to suffer from terminal collar fraying. I don't go out and buy a shirt every few months - I buy a box full in one go and try not to set foot into a clothes shop for at least two years.

I have written previously how I feel badly done over by Oxford. It used to be that you could walk into their shop and walk out totally outfitted for life in the business world - a suit, shirts and matching ties. Their salesmen were excellent - if they couldn't sell you five shirts and five ties in 10 minutes, they were hopeless. I loved the buyers, since they did their job so well, the salesmen had to do very little except carry clothes from the change rooms to the cash register for you. They stocked stuff that just sold itself.

Then something happened, and the whole focus of the chain shifted. Their demographic was no longer the well dressed young man who worked in the city and simply wanted to walk in, spend $1000 and walk out half an hour later feeling comfortable with his purchases. The new demographic was young, drug dealing wogs who spend their lives either in their rice burning cars or in nightclubs. Due to the mega profits available in the drug trade, as opposed to working for say NAB, the price of shirts doubled overnight.

I hate them now. Bastards. They have made my life incredibly difficult.

I spent a day in the CBD this week doing nothing but trawling from mens shop to mens shop looking at shirts. I failed to find a single shirt that inspired me. Nothing leapt of the shelves screaming "buy me". It was a waste of a day.

Then I spent half of today doing the same thing at the Chatswood Mall. You'd think that Westfield would be able to stock a mall with at least a few half reasonable mens shops, but it was a complete bust. I spent more time in places like Dick Smith and JB Hi-Fi looking at cameras than I did in the pathetic number of mens shops.

I guess I will be heading back to Oxford St soon. I have tried to avoid going there, as the last time I did, I bought some great shirts that just haven't done it for me in the long run. They are made of magnificent cotton. They are simply gorgeous, but they are all double cuffed, the sleeves are a fraction too long and they are a pain to iron. I love them, but I am over wearing them. They also seem to be "flouncy". If Oxford St doesn't do it for me, I guess I will be visiting a shirt tailor and having some made up.

It can't be that hard to buy a shirt can it?