The Contentedness thread - Page 15

No disrespect intended - but those things look pristine for four years of wear. Have a pair of sand suedes that I've had for almost two and they're almost beat to death.

Great job on care on a shoe that normally gets trashed!

I had other pairs too, including Beeswax and Sand. The Sand suede eventually turned medium-dark gray because of the dirt/grime, I gave them away to a kid with no shoes while I was at the homeland. The Beeswax somehow established a hole in one of the shoes so I also gave them away. The picture I took suck, the suede part is wearing off, and the crepe sole is also wearing off, you can see the clear portion underneath. There's also water spots (I'm assuming) on the front of the shoes.

This might be a little tangential but there was another interesting article in the Times last weekend about "Pinterest, Tumblr and the Trouble with Curation". Basically stating that these blogs create continous unattainable longing for a life and stuff we don't have.

quote:
"(These "life longings") target aspects of our lives that “are incomplete or imperfect”; involve “overly positive, idealized, utopian imaginations of these missing aspects”; focus on “incompleteness on the one hand and fantasies about ideal, alternative realities on the other hand”; result in a “temporarily complex experience” combining “memories of the past, reflections on the imperfect present and fantasies about an idealized future” (this is called “tritime focus”); and that “make individuals reflect on and evaluate their life, comparing the status quo with ideals or successful others.” In other words, your average Pinterest board or inspiration Tumblr basically functions as a longing machine."

 

...?

Noob post.

 

Very relevant: http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf

^love the byline: "... and his most recent novel, Infinite Jest, will be published in February..."

 

 

So I bought some APC New Standards in November 2009. I got them at the Steven Alan Annex in Venice because my roommate was friends/dating an SA there who hooked me up with his employee discount. I remember trying on the 29s and them being a bit loose in the waist, so I grabbed a pair of 28s and thought they felt like the most solid, tightest things I'd ever worn. I made some remark about how I didn't think I could go any further than this and he told me about how plenty of guys preferred the Petit Standard which was even slimmer. It sounded nuts to me at the time. Now I am considering picking some up for when these finally go.

 

I wore the New Standards maybe 4-6 months before washing, and I probably should have held out longer since I was wearing them really infrequently. The office job meant they saw weekend wear only. Somehow I don't have any decent shots of them early on, except for this one where I'm white-guy-dancing/drunk-falling and wearing a really terrible tent-fitting Brooks Brothers "slim fit" shirt on New Years 2010.

 

 

Here's a shot from about a year in; this would be early 2011. Some signs of fading are starting to show, but it was pretty slow going:

 

 

also the legs below the knee are starting to look a little sloppy, but around this time I decided to really just wear the hell out of them without washing any more times. fast-forward to late 2011 and I had them tapered because they had just stretched out way too much. then they saw some ocean when I ran into the atlantic at 6am on a layover in Miami

 

 

 

then finally, after being inspired by other posts here, I decided to bleach them. I wanted lighter jeans for the summer, I had another pair of dark denim on hand, and these weren't really dark anymore anyway, so I figured I would go for it. here are the side-by-side results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still looking for a pair of raws to be content with. On my third pair and nothing has worked out. Might have to give the PS another try in a size up. The W+H slim fit are cut pretty well but I need a bit more room in the crotch.

Tumblr is a great way to find intriguing articles, uncover powerful excerpts from books, gawk at pretty girls drinking coffee, etc. But too much of it definitely leaves me feeling like I’m failing at life because I don’t have a minimalist apartment with nice hardwood floors and a view of the skyline that I would look at all the time, if I weren’t too preoccupied with my built-in shelves that housed my thousands of books that I’d read cover to cover and could tell you all about. It’s a tightrope act to see these things pop up in my “newsfeed” and just appreciate them without also thinking, “God damn, are you ever gonna get some hardwood floors of your own?”

I'm only on tumblr for pictures of miranda kerr and rihanna.

I've picked up many items that I've felt were "worth the price I paid". This isn't necessarily a knock on them, but often times they are items that I wouldn't be willing to pay retail for/ tried on a whim/ found on B&S. Some of them are out of my comfort zone, some are just things I don't feel are worth retail. There are only a few SW&D items that I think were worth the full retail price - ToJ lamb rider, ToJ suede harrington, and a Schneider alpaca coat.







I do my best to keep a list of needs and a separate list of wants as I'm not baller enough yet to cop with wild abandon. When I'm being disciplined with my shopping, I don't end up buying too many things at full retail. So why did I end up paying full price for these? Forum beasting has something to do with it - I would have never come across any of them without SF. Another factor is how they fit in my wardrobe. I don't have the most adventurous or baller wardrobe, so these 3 items probably would be considered highlights. Something else to consider is that they're all outerwear , one of the categories where I feel that quality is more pronounced.

I'm quite happy with these purchases, even though they won't get wear for most of the year where I live (or to work a vast majority of the time even during cooler seasons).

Bump.

 

 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740811000209

^ agree about experiences over material things. always try to do this for birthdays, holidays etc. 20 years from now i won't remember many material things i owned but i'll remember the first trip to paris.