Internal Dialogue

Everyone seems to have a different opinion as to what clothes are acceptable to wear during the summer months. Actually, with this being the Netherlands, it’s not really so much months as it is a few heat waves.

But nonetheless, what do you wear when the weather is warm or even hot? What do you find acceptable and do you have limits? Of course there is a difference in what you find acceptable to wear inside your own house and what you wear to work. Or just outside in public, even. Obviously you’re not going to wear flip-flops when you go to the office. But that not what I’m asking – I want to know what’s okay to wear when you go outside.

First of all, shoes: I don’t really like sandals, though they’re pretty much required when you want to do some serious walking but can’t stand the heat of normal shoes. But when I’m just walking around and not doing anything intensive, I prefer my flip-flops. Though there are a lot of people who seem to have a problem with that. I’ve heard all the arguments: from the simple “omg men shouldn’t wear flip-flops, eww” and “it looks ridiculous”, to the more serious “you could hurt your feet!”.

Now normally, I don’t really care what other people think about what my clothes. My everyday shoes pretty much fall into the category of ’skate shoes’, and although few people even notice that it’s clear not everyone appreciates me (or anyone else for that matter) wearing those kind of shoes. Recently I even encountered a stranger on the train who stared at them for a while and then, with a slightly disgusted look on her face, actually said: “why did you pick those…?”

It’s the same with other clothes, like pants. During the summer I prefer slightly truncated pants, and when it’s really, really hot I wear shorts. Perhaps this is a more general issue, but every time someone gives me a strange look when I wear these clothes I wonder if they’re silently disapproving. Not that I care that much, really – but it does give me the idea that not everyone agrees to what’s acceptable to wear during the summer.

So recently, when I’m outside, I’ve been paying attention as to what other people are wearing during these summer months. To find out what others find acceptable. To me, there seem to be three kinds of people:

• those who don’t care and wear what they want
• those who do care and dress as comfortably as the rules of fashion will allow
• those who care so much that they’ll even wear jeans and normal shoes in 30 degrees weather, just because for them it’s the decent thing to do

Now, I don’t really care to which category you belong. This is just my view of the summer-clothing world. But obviously, I have my preferences. Like I said, I normally don’t really care about silly things like fashion and what other people think about my everyday clothing. Sure, like everyone else I do use some sense when I’m dressing myself, but generally speaking I buy what I like and wear what I want. But during the summer months I’m a bit more hesitant with the clothes I wear. Perhaps because it’s so hot we don’t wear that much anyway, I find it important to make sure the few things I do wear don’t look hideous together.

Still, my willingness to change is limited. I watch what I wear during the summer, but I won’t change too much. I still wear my flip-flops to the Albert Heijn if I want to, and if the weather really requires it, even to the city center. That doesn’t mean I’ll only wear that, it all depends on the occasion. If I’m going to Scheveningen to play DDR I will wear my thick warm black skate shoes, even when it’s hot and to others might look ridiculous.