i have some band t-shirts, i have a thin hoodie and a thick hoodie with band shit on it. But most of the time I'm business casual at work, even though I'm allowed to wear t-shirts and shorts if i wanted. I tend to go for jeans, casual colored pants, on friday's i'll wear shorts, and almost always a collared shirt of some kind.

On weekends, I'm t-shirt (plain black or gray) and jeans as i"m working in the yard or around the house. If I'm wearing a band-t, it's generally around the house of doing casual shit on the weekends, or if I'm at a show. More than anything, I buy merch more often so support the band rather than some major desire to have the shirt or something. I'm a parent.. and I really don't feel like dealing with other parents judging me, i don't feel like being judged professionally, and frankly.. I like v-neck t-shirts, and no one makes v-neck band shirts.

That all being said.. In late high school and all through college I was.. i don't know what i was. My fashion was like punk meets metalhead meets raver. Colored hair, mohawk for a time, dreads for a time, piercings (plugs in ears, tongue, labret,), baggy pants that made jnco's look like skinny jeans, long finger ring (whatever you call it), various other jewelry, sometimes fingernail polish. Patches on backpacks, stickers on binders and notebooks. Darwin fish on my piece of shit car.

And i dunno - i had a lot invested emotionally in my "identity". But overtime I began to see fashion as one of the lowest ways of expressing yourself. Unless you're a fashion designer of some sort or it's part of a larger set of art or entertainment that YOU create.

I tend to like creative expression more about things you DO and things you MAKE rather than things you buy and slap onto yourself (permanent or otherwise) or your car or whatever just to advertise to people what a unique little snowflake you are via your consumer choices. I live in a place that has one of the highest rates of vanity plates on their cars, highest rates of bumper stickers on cars, and highest rates of tattoos on people and I dunno, I associate that mentality, that "look at me and look at all the things i like but don't you dare judge me negatively" attitude with my own childishness. I'm attracted to metal, in part, because it's darkness and it's extremity (or virtuosity, and poetry, and others). I don't care to thrust it in people's face and be challenged and defend my choices in what I like - or worse, how i'm raising my kid around such things. I'm a horror movie addict and it's kind of the same thing there.

I'd rather be known for my actions, for the end results of my actions - my accomplishments, and IF i was an artist (which i'm not), the things I created myself rather than just waiving my entertainment/art choices at everyone else. I'm tired of defending it. I'm tired of being challenged on it. Tired of the silent judgements.

I take a "fight club" approach to fashion. Shaved head. Boring shirts. Boring pants. We're all part of the same compost heap. Expression in this regard is so tightly woven to "consumer identity" and i just don't care to be judged by my consumption. Nor do i care to align with or befriend people with similar taste. I care more about a person rather than what they listen to.