Alright, PC? Long time no post in here.
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. And I'd like to take a minute - just sit right there - I'll tell you all about how I went suit shopping and got a haircut.*
I started a new job recently and realised that my suit collection was looking a bit shabby. Since I got paid yesterday, I thought "no time like the present" and set off on an adventure through the suit shops of London in order to find one that was perfectly me. I went in eight shops over the course of a day, had many dapper gentlemen flatter me in an attempt to get that sweeeeeeeet, sweet commission money from me, but I managed to narrow it down to two, which you'll see below.
This first one was from J. Crew, an establishment which I'd heard of vaguely from US television but didn't think had arrived on this side of the pond. "Au contraire!" people from work told me on Friday, and they recommended that I check it out. And I was very glad I did, as you can see from my glowing expression below:
As you can see, me and Oprah below are complete dead ringers in our expressions; it's like I've won my own Lego Oscar in suit form! Everything was, indeed, awesome. I've never had a grey suit before, but I was in the mood to shake things up a bit and tried it on accordingly. Wouldn't you know that it fit like a dream? The leg length is always a bit of an annoyance what with me being a shorty-short shorterson with a weird torso:limbs ratio, but thank goodness for tailors, amirite?
The other one in this veritable sartorial Hunger Games was from Hugo Boss, an establishment which I'd not only heard of but had bought shoes from (albeit at a mega discount). By this point in the day, I'd become a dab hand at taking photographs of me all James Bond-like and #swag and all:
And again, such smiles! Such wow! It's a wonder Cara Delevigne or Kate Moss didn't ambush me right there and then in the fitting room and ask me for smiling tips for their runway shows! And with one hand: look ma, one hand! Anyhoo, the main selling point with this one was that it was a dark blue suit: another new suit colour to me, and one that I was surprised I could pull off so well, if I say so myself. The fit on this one wasn't as perfect as the J. Crew one, but the price point was, to my surprise, much more pleasing. Decisions, decisions!
But wait, there's more! Though most of the other suits that I tried on weren't as appealing as these two, one shop - Suitsupply - had a particularly interesting clientele and fitting room decor. Roughly half of the customers were investment bankers looking for new duds for the latest Moet-sponsored, cocaine-laden yacht party, and the other half were
Shoreditch hipsters (Shoreditch being an area of London teeming with hipsters) looking for an outfit to throw up on whilst getting trashed on MDMA in a dingy nightclub. Wanting to appeal to both sets of disparate customers, Suitsupply thought: "What of, instead of a mirror in the fitting room, we put a photograph which will encourage everyone who goes in there to buy our suits!?"
Suffice to say, the store was packed. Unfortunately, the suits for office purposes were a bit too shiny for my liking, so I had to resist the siren call of the fitting room women and venture on.
Amidst of all of this, I'd forgotten I had a haircut booked for that afternoon! You might be able to see the difference between the first and second pictures, but for the non-eagle-eyed amongst you, here's my new casual coiffure and, I guess, my new look for the next couple of months, should you happen to see me, and kinda the whole point of this thread:
"But Mr Cat Dog! Which suit did you end up buying!?" I hear you all cry in a cacophonous plea. Ah, that's a mystery that I'll leave you all to ponder over. In a gambit worthy of only the best Kickstarters/Facebook gimmick accounts/clickbait news headlines, if I get as many 'likes' on this post as Kura's most recent photo above, I'll reveal all. If not, I guess you all don't love me and I'll never post here again.
Fun times!
EDIT: Ooh, palindromic postcount! Maybe I genuinely won't ever post here again just to keep this constant!
*For the record, I've never even been to Bel-Air, let alone become its prince!