Thursday, November 18, 2010

Object lesson in how Vancouver is not Milan, or New York



Saw this picture on The Sartorialist not too long ago, and that clinched my decision that YES! I too could be one of that cool race streetstyle blogs revere above all - The Biker. For the Biker is not only stylish, but is going places, and quickly. And has chosen an outfit that does not hamper their mobility, but instead inspires envy in all of the everyday Sidewalk People they whip past. Extra points if The Biker (as in the above picture) manages to wear a helmet and still look put-together and badass.
I no longer wanted to be a Sidewalk Person.
This morning I tossed aside my rain pants, pulled on my combat boots and headed out to conquer the world.

Only, I forgot this small fact. I live in Vancouver. Not New York.

It rains in Vancouver, if you haven't heard. I mean, I'm sure it 'rains' in New York, but it RAINS in Vancouver. In my class today, we had a twenty minute discussion about the meaning of "It must be raining." Now, it was a semantics class, but in Vancouver we take discussion of the weather to a whole new level. It is a legit conversation topic, thanks very much.

But I was not thinking. I was convinced that I could defy basic rules of practicality and sanity, and so I had to bike home in a rain/sleet storm on a bike with sketchy brakes and suburb roads that looked like rivers full of leaf muck.
And so, this is what I looked like.




Scroll back up to the top picture again, if you will, just for effect.



My poor darling Fluevogs. Thankfully designed by a fellow Vancouverite, who obviously foresaw the need to make the leather impervious to water-stains.



This is my "next time I will do the smart thing and wear rain pants" face. (And peace, because I never know how to pose my hands.)

So hopefully I learned my lesson. Though I don't know if I can ever resign myself to complete practicality. I'll just have to be a strategic dresser.

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