The Act of Melding Comfort and Fashion

Mar 23
09:30

2010

Kimberly Green

Kimberly Green

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Have you ever picked a pair of uncomfortable yet fashionable pair of polarized sunglasses over a pair of comfortable yet generic sunglasses? Don’t worry we all have.

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The problem with sunglasses is sometimes style has a tendency to win over comfort and practibility. For example,The Act of Melding Comfort and Fashion Articles have you ever had the choice between a really comfortable pair of polarized sunglasses and a pair that are a bit more stylish yet much more uncomfortable? Have you ever decided to choose the more stylish pair over the more comfortable ones because they were a bit more fashionable? Yeah, thought so. And don’t think I’m here to judge because I’ve done the exact same thing before. After about a week of these large awkward things on your face you realize that picking style over comfort was a really, really terrible idea.

In a way companies have always been slow to blend comfort and practicality. I’m not just talking about sunglass companies; I’m talking about most companies. For women, we have had a history of fashion looking really good but being some of the least practical and comfortable things you could ever put on. Why is it still taboo for women’s jean companies to put pockets on their jeans? Women need pockets just as much as guys but unless you want the industrial jeans most women’s jean companies have refused to add this much needed feature to their garments.

Another industry where comfort and practicality has just recently begun to meld is the car industry. For years American drivers had to pick between a car that looked good and was comfortable and a car that gets great gas mileage. Do you remember the old fuel efficient cars that were on the market before the whole “green” movement started? They were uncomfortable, boxy, and had the look of something that the car companies just threw together. It wasn’t until recent years that they realized that people weren’t going to buy luxury cars unless they got more than ten miles per gallon. Now you have a car like the Mini which gets 30 miles a gallon and looks like something that you would want to drive (and they are surprisingly quite roomy).

While a lot of today’s fashion is beginning to find a way to meld comfort and style, we still have a long way to go to match what guys have on the market. It’s becoming acceptable for girls to wear t-shirts (thank god), though it would be nice not to have to pick between loose and billowy and tight and constrictive. Isn’t there a mid-ground where we can feel fashionable and comfortable? Hopefully NASA has a room full of scientists working on that (heck, after the shuttle is scrapped what else do they have to do?).

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