What Do We Want to Look Like and Why

This entire blog is going to be a reaction to my friends RaisaRobin and Deathmama's Why Get Dressed blog. Theirs is well-written; mine almost certainly won't be. (I'm already neglecting two other blogs.) I hope to include lots of pictures, though. In fact, that's the whole reason for me starting this blog. I can't include pictures in my comments on the posts.

In a recent post, RR poses the question "What do we want to look like and why?"

I don't think I have a real answer to that question. In fact, I think all I want to do in this post is defend a Jennifer Aniston outfit choice that RR described as desperate.



But I think she looks great. It might be trampy if she were wearing a skirt, but she's in a pair of short (and not that short) but otherwise conservative walking shorts.



Why did Jennifer Aniston get dressed that way that day, back on May 24, 2006? And did she accomplish what she wanted to?

I think she was bringing her California cool style to a likely sweltering on-the-verge-of-summer New York. She didn't want to look like she was trying to hard, and what's more casual than shorts? Yet she still looked put-together enough for national TV. And she wanted to show off her fantastic legs. I think her outfit was successful.

I'm often initially taken aback by the outfits of a 20-ish woman I see frequently. This woman, who is really pretty and awfully sweet, does not follow the no-more-than-one-slutty-item rule. Tonight she was wearing a tight, sparkly midriff-baring tank with ultra-tight skinny jeans with a lot of gold embellishments on the backside. Her eyes were dark with eyeshadow, her lips bright with lipstick, and she was wearing a Flashdance-style headband across her forehead.

And you know what? I thought the outfit looked great on her. Some might say she looked desperate. But I think she looked like someone who wanted to enjoy being a young, single woman out on the town on a warm summer night.