Oh, I'm sure there are men who find getting clothes to fit difficult, but it seems to pretty much be a universal among women that stores don't sell any pants that fit them well.

This is regardless of body type. Apparently the pants in the stores aren't designed for any woman found on earth.

And odds are that if men had the same standards of fit that most women seem to have then we'd probably find it pretty darn difficult as well. My anecdotal experience is that most men simply don't care much. If it covers the things that need covering, reaches most of the way to the floor, and can be snapped/zipped/buttoned without much in the way of effort then it is an adequate fit.

On the subject of cultural influence, CP and I are running into a prime example of how one can be both culturally influenced and have your own mind/tastes/personality.

For the new place, we're shopping for a club chair. Now, I can say without a doubt that had club chairs not been all the rage over the last several years, we would not be looking for a club chair. Before that, I kinda appreciated club chairs, but they weren't on my radar as something I liked. It took their sudden ubiquitous apperance in every furniture display known to man for us to realize that, yeah, it was something we liked.

So now that we have the opportunity to do some furniture shopping, a club chair was high on our list. But we're quickly learning that the fad has passed us by. The selection of club chairs in most furniture stores has gone down, and prices up. But, unlike people who are slaves to fads, that doesn't change the fact that we like them. Sure, the fad is what woke us up to the fact that we like them, but we didn't like them because they were the fad. We liked them because we liked them, and now that the fad has passed, we still like them.

Now, the new furniture fad seems to be bar-height dining tables. Those are lame, fad or not.

And as an example of how cultural influences can completely pass you by I have no idea what a club chair is.

Some examples of club chairs (techincally, the first and third one, where the arms and the back are on the same line are classic club chairs, but the definition's been expanded a bit)...

I have one of those, but it's not leather, so when I see it, I don't think "club chair." I call it my "big chair" or my "green chair" (because it's green). It's nice for curling up in to read.

Oh my goodness! There are so many options for men!! How could you only have T-shirt and pants and the variation of shorts! Oh, the plethora of choices that are available. Hats, fedoras. Oh, the shoes you can choose without having to decide on heel width and height! Sure, there are fewer choices for males than females, but to deny the power of a well-chosen tie, the right shirt, the cufflinks... The thing I like about male-dressing is that yes, you can go overboard, but it's difficult to screw up, yet you *can* be interesting. One could say decorating a house is difficult, and ends in the same boring result, but they're ignoring choices in paint color that vary away from some form of neutral. The same could be said for how many men dress.

One of my all-time favorite male looks is a deep purple or deep red shirt with a black and grey striped tie, grey slacks, black leather shoes. Then again, a friend of mine a little while back wore some khaki pants and a very finely patterned blue and white gingham shirt, and he looked fantastic... Not to mention, he was slightly unbuttoned and rather comfortable.

The choices are out there, you just have to be willing to look.

I find that yes, the choices are out there for women, there are just so many more pitfalls in our fashion choices.

So what are you advocating for? Exposed Ball Cleavage? Low rise Jeans? Michael Jorden to come out with a line of stripper pumps for men? :D

We actually have a big green chair. (You can see it in the craigslisting.) I like sitting in that one sideways, with my legs over one arm. The other term for "big chairs" is "chair and a half". "Club chairs" are not supposed to be "big", just large enough for one person to sit in normally.

I'm not sure mine is quite a chair and a half--it's not that big. It's just bigger than any of the other chairs in my home. Not comfy sideways, really (I've tried). Perhaps it's bigger than a normal club chair.

In any case, it's green and rattan and I like it.

You guys are in for such a shock when I land.

I'm a queen with NO fashion sense at all. Daggy jeans, ill fitting shirts and grotty joggers sums up my preferred wear.

I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in about 3 years.

I want a kilt.