On being a Fashion Icon

I have, I think, enough common sense, personal awareness and humility not to aim to be a fashion-setter. However today that has been called into question by three comments from random strangers here in Oxford.

Late in the afternoon a graduate student in sub fusc - today has been Matriculation Day - congratulated m eon my choice of tie. Now it is one of which I am fond - and has been commented upon by others - and originated in Australia. It depicts, upon a dark blue background, various ruined buildings in one of the now abandoned first settlement towns on the coast of either New South Wales or Victoria. I found it second-hand here in Oxford and liked the design.

Nothing remarkable so far, but then in the late evening as I was walking with some friends an undergraduate stopped and said how much he liked my hat - a battered fedora, which can be seen on my head in the photograph at the head of this blog - and offered me £500 for it (It was Saturday night and I suspect he may have a drink or two). I declined the offer.

So my tie and my hat are noteworthy. However as I approached my home a passer-by said how much he admired my red trousers - they are rather the shade once worn by the French army.

Thus I returned home, affirmed in my sartorial choices for the day, when I had merely put on what came to hand and was suitable. Not merely am I a fashion icon, but an instinctive one.