Over the years, I lived through many fashion changes, and resisted all of them until no other alternatives became available.  Then, with stubborn reluctance, I gradually succumbed to accept some modest changes, just about the time the fashion craze moved on to something else.   

For example, In the early sixties, the style was skinny ties, about 1 1/2” wide, with jacket lapels the same.  A shirt had a narrow collar, with holes to attach a tie pin under the skinny knot of the tie.  Boffo!  What a great look, until the Vietnam era brought riots into the streets.  The fashion turned 180 degrees, sporting extra-wide jacket lapels, bell bottom trousers, and wide ties — suitable substitutes for a lobster bib to keep your shirt clean.  Reluctantly, I gradually moved into fashion, and kept the remnants in my historical closet repertoire.  After all, one never knows when an out-of-date fashion may return.  

Occasionally, when searching for something to wear, I would fetch a remnant, and my wife would say:”  You are going to wear that?’ —  a put down by a more knowledgeable fashion plate than myself.  Some time ago, retro parties became in fashion.   Every invitee needed to wear a costume from a former era, sometimes defined with particularity.  I found a bonanza in my closet.  At a Seventies party, I could wear a wide lapel hound’s tooth jacket, over a silken fluffy sleeve blouse, and dark bell bottom pants, with an unbelievably wide tie.  People would ask: “Where did you find that?”  I became the envy of the fashion-less crowd.  I responded, with a satisfied smirk, “In the retro section of my closet.” 

One benefit of the Corona virus quarantine:  I could wear anything I wanted or nothing, because no one could see what I was wearing.  So I relished dressing in old fashions of the past, and acted more youthful than my age, muttering:  “I can’t believe I actually dressed like this once”. 

Old sweat pants, soccer jerseys, white socks, and shorts (when shorts were short and not over the knees) paraded out of my closet, along with the many memories associated with them.  Alas, and at long last, I pitched many of the remnants of past decades, but enjoyed my leisure time reminiscing about earlier times.  My closet is much less crowded because of it.