Attack of the Pea Coats

Over the years I have put valuable input into avoiding Fashion Trends. There is an expression that goes "Everything old is new again". Never a truer word spoken if anyone takes the time to walk into stores such as H&M or even Neiman Marcus. I laughed; giggled; cajooled and pointed at all the fashions that have been 'in' in the past year. EVERYTHING, down to the chunky jewelry, looks exactly like all the clothes from the late 60s, 70s and the whole 80s that my parents finally packed off to our local Goodwill store just before the Millennium.

To see all of my childhood memories adorned on the bodies of women with self-induced eating disorders....I was rather hoping that since so many of these women were making the effort to dress as their mothers and grandmothers did in previous decades, they would now also be as politically aware as their relatives were during the periods of strife that those styles were created in.

That's probably asking way too much of my generation.

I've been digressing. The whole point of this post was to write about a disturbing fashion trend that I realized this week has permeated every corner of this city.

I'm speaking of Pea Coats. Every women or girl has one! I'm not kidding! I even made the mistake of buying one at this thrift store in burbank last month. (In my defense, I got it for 20 dollars when it was originally priced at 80 dollars!) Now I'm wondering to myself, "What the hell was I thinking?!!!"

I moment of observation came almost two weeks ago on my way to work. I was seated on the darling MUNI bus and I noticed that I was sitting across from three different women wearing pea coats in various shades. (To top it off they also had the same type of silk scarf knotted around their necks in the same style). I probably cocked my head while staring at them in the manner of 'WTF?'.

I remember turning my gaze to my right and seeing a number of other women on the bus wearing pea coats as well. (The latest trend in pea coats is to wear them in bright colors such as nuclear green and scarlet fever red). The ride ended in thirty minutes, so I was occupied the whole ride with one thought: Who else is wearing one of them?

The answer came quickly during my trapeze through the streets on the way to work. Every other woman was wearing a pea coat!!! Well fuck it! I'm sure as hell not going to wear mine now!

The more I thought about the prevalence among women in this city for wearing this particular type of coat, the more I tried to create a spiderweb of information that would lead a college-educated female towards the center of the web (which is where the pea coat resides).

After a few minutes I realized that there was no need to create a spiderweb of information to deduce why pea coats are so popular. The answer I sought was simple: It is a 'professional'-looking coat.

The pea coat has become, in my opinion, another accessory to round out the corporate drone outfit from hell. And although I have become a corporate whore to stay fed and housed, I refuse, REFUSE, to give in any further and dress like the drones that want me to join their blackberry toting, gold card member carrying, sharper image ordering, Tumi luggage buying circle of hell!

So until the day that the have to kiss corporate ass entirely, I will sit bundled up in my old ass black dye fading bubble coat. I may be tacky but with my soul is intact!