Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

The last ankle pants

I bought some new pants the other day. I'm actually pretty pleased about the need for new pants, though I hate shopping, because I lost some weight and needed new pants to replace the ones that were now too big.

Anyway, I hate shopping. One of the things I hate is fitting rooms, so I have a bad habit of purchasing clothes without trying them on. I did that with a suit once. Then I got home and it fit beautifully, except that the sleeves ended three inches above my wrists and the pants ended above my ankles. My sister is the same size I am except shorter. Instead of going through the return & exchangle hassle (I'm too lazy to try stuff on, you think I can stand returns and exchanges?) I gave the suit to her. She looks great in it.

So, I bit the bullet and went shopping, and found these pants. They are charcoal grey pinstripe, very professional. I took them home and they fit great...except they stop right above my ankle. I tried on every pair of shoes I have that I could wear with work pants (that would be three pairs...I don't like shoe shopping either) and decided that with black boots the short legs didn't look too bad.

I took them to my sister for her opinion. She kinda frowned and slowly answered "They look...okay." Which I took to mean "They look...wrong."

"What you have there are ankle pants," she said. "Ankle pants" is a new one to me, but as I mentioned, I hate shopping. I am, not surprisingly, not an early adapter when it comes to fashion. I believe I bought the last pair of acid-washed jeans sold in America, and possibly the last pair of stirup pants as well. Then she told me that I shouldn't be wearing boots, I should be wearing...I forgot what she called them, but shoes you wear without socks.

So, ugh, another shopping trip. Our dress code at work has some prohibition against open toes and shoes without backs, but I found a pair of sandals that had wide straps that covered toes and went around the back. And today, since it was supposed to go over 90 degrees, I figures I'd try wearing them.

In ten and a half years at my job I have never gone to work with bare legs. In the "ankle pants" only about three inches of skin was showing, but I really felt self-conscious. And it's not that I work for some puritanical place where a glimpse of non-stocking is looked upon as something shocking...with some of my younger co-workers, anything does go. (They routinely disregard the open toe rule!) But I might as well have shown up in a thong for the way I felt.

So I pretty much stayed at my desk all day. I just felt naked. I can't explain it. On my way out tonight, though, I did stop by a friend's desk to say good bye. She looked at me a minute and said "Is that a new outfit?"

"Yeah."

"Are those new shoes?"

"Yeah."

She called another friend over to check me out. "You look so fashionable! I haven't ever seen you wear sandals. And are those ankle pants?"

I admitted that it was the first time I ever had worn them to the office. I also admitted that I felt a little weird. They reassured me that I looked great, that the shoes were fine, the pants were fine, and I should go ahead and embrace the ankle panks.

Which I would, but I know that in stores all across the country they are being pulled from the shelves this very day.

Posted by Nic at July 16, 2003 08:23 PM