What you're wearing, Pross-

Humidity can identify the quality of clothes. I just found out. Last year, the rainy season was particularly humid, and I saw mildew spots on several sets of woolen clothes. You see, white spots are hairy and less moldy. For me who is blind in science, this is a great discovery. I was complacent, wiped it with a wet cloth, dried it and put it back in the closet.

These suits are the work clothes of the company. Later, they were infected with four winds, and their suits were changed into jackets and jackets. Fourth, it is strange that wind energy is connected with the work clothes that all employees have. But fortunately, no one wears a suit now. Less than 1% of employees wear this. I wear it twice a year, at the annual work meeting in early January and the party building commendation meeting at the end of June, as required. Many people put their suits in the office, put them on before the meeting and take them off after the meeting. Some people only wear coats in meetings, so they can't see their pants when they sit. When the meeting is over, you can see a strange phenomenon, wearing a dark suit, maybe a tie above, and colorful pants and skirts below.

Although wearing clothes is different from wearing a hat, clothes are too closely related to politics. In ancient China, it was used to mark political status. No matter Hu Hua or Han Hua, clothes can also distinguish ideological tendencies. When it was first changed, a leader thought that wearing a suit could "cultivate an open consciousness and show the open image of China to the world" and took the lead in wearing a suit. Hao Jianxiu, then secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, sent a letter to the Minister of Light Industry, "advocating wearing suits, dual-purpose shirts, skirts and cheongsam". This is called a high level, which not only affects the country, but also goes abroad.

Some foreign ladies know that the cheongsam is so beautiful that they wear it specially to express their friendship with China, but they find that many hotels and shopping malls wear it to welcome guests. They don't understand that in our socialist country, everyone is equal regardless of rank, and they feel that they are people with status. Guiding me to wear waiter's clothes is beneath their dignity. We must do some explaining work. A few years later, partly influenced by the leaders, men "no matter how big the official is, everyone has a jacket" and women "no matter how big the belly is, everyone has a pair of ankle-length pants". Jackets are better. If a woman is fat, she is uglier than Yang Er's sister-in-law written by Lu Xun, and her eyes are really spicy.

So is the suit. On the spirit, but there are requirements for the environment. As long as everything is suitable, otherwise you will be really embarrassed. When I first started working, I followed the fashion and bought a cheap suit. My relatives want to visit during the Spring Festival, so they wear this. At first, my mother said she would bring a bucket of steamed bread, which was nothing. Later, she said that there was not much rice in her relatives' house, so you should pack half a sack of rice. I tied the sack to my bike and rode for dozens of miles. Not to mention, the chemical fiber tie makes my neck uncomfortable and I can't get into the wind. I was so hot that my shirt collar was soaked, which was embarrassing. Besides, this image is not harmonious.

Later, I read "On Suits" written by Lin Yutang and carefully analyzed this kind of clothes from foreigners. I know that there are other explanations besides "cultivating open consciousness and displaying open image", and I can't help laughing. Most of the people who wore it at that time were "the trend of the times". It's not necessarily like what Mr. Lin said, "people are wise and foolish," but you can see it by wearing a suit or not. Humor masters are too serious.

I must have forgotten what I wore when I was a child, but I know I wore green coarse clothes on the first day of school. Maybe that day was a little important. My mother and my sister remember. They told me. No matter at school or at work, I wear my own woven and hand-sewn coarse clothes all the year round. I often follow my mother with a cloth to Minfeng's dyehouse, and I still remember the colorful vats and pungent smell in that bungalow. My mother said that people there are stupid and can only weave white cloth, and people can only dye one color, while Lijin people can dye flowers, and Luxi people are more clever, weaving colorful plaid and striped cloth directly. Later, I saw that the coarse cloth woven by Luxi people was called "Jin Lu" and could be exported to Japan and South Korea for exchange. I wear coarse cloth and don't feel hot in summer. It's just that the stiff collar hurts my neck just after I put on my new jacket.

It's a little too big. My mother made me a jacket out of foreign cloth. I was surprised when I first put it on. There is such a good cloth in the world, so it feels good to wear it. If I wear coarse cloth again, I will feel bored. There is a child whose father is an oilfield worker. He can wear a silk coat in winter. I don't envy, because I know it's not what I can have at all. After a long time, our cuffs were covered with thick and bright dirt, which had to be scraped off with a knife. His silk coat is not as good as my coarse coat at this time. I must be very careful, I will scratch it if I am not careful.

In summer, we often use elastic bands in our pants. Naughty classmates took advantage of their classmates' inattention and pulled down the boys' pants at once, with nothing on inside. Everyone laughed, and the boy was ashamed. Not only boys pull boys' pants, but also fierce little girls pull boys' pants. I see people who like to do it. They subconsciously grab their pants to avoid being ripped off. No matter what the teacher does, we don't feel anything wrong.

I wore my aunt's clothes. My aunt went to the teachers' college in Beizhen at that time, which was more westernized. A blue striped sea soul shirt and a pair of square shoes with plastic soles are much more stylish than their own. Unfortunately, it's too old to wear in a short time. On the first day of junior high school, my relatives gave me an old dress, a four-pocket coat that hasn't been patched yet. This coat is dyed as new. I wear it to school, and all my classmates envy me. I'm glad to say that your official dress is really good. Then a man said, this is your old clothes, which you picked up from others. I asked you how you knew. He said that the buttons of this jacket are all broken. It must be dyed. When I saw it, the plastic buttons were covered with tiny cracks, which were cooked by my mother when she dyed her own clothes. The beautiful bubble burst, and my face was embarrassed and my heart was gloomy. I hate that sharp-eyed and talkative classmate: if you are poor, why did you hit me in the face? It hit my vanity, so I stopped wearing this jacket and turned away when I saw it without giving any reason.

I have had a "card" jacket since high school. My mother took me to Aunt Yuan in the east of the village to do it. It has four blue pockets, shining in the sun. When you wear it, pull up the cuffs to expose the lock edge of the white line inside. My mother also said that she would make me a "small coat", that is, a uniform cotton-padded jacket with black lapels and inclined pockets, but she didn't make it. The reason is that the house will be turned over at home. Father went to a new store to buy purlins, sat on a tractor and smoked, burning a hole in a newly hung sheepskin coat. This is a great event, which not only makes my father give up smoking, but also affects the process of wearing a "small coat". By the time I put it on, my classmate named Yu already had an authentic military coat. This makes us jealous. The old cow wanted to wear this coat very much, so she made a bet with him. Niu Lao is really unambiguous. He went to the dormitory naked during evening self-study and walked around the classroom in his coat under our supervision. There are many girls in it, and he is poised. This extraordinary courage won him the right to use the military coat for a week.

I go to school in the city and buy my own clothes. I don't like the clothes of my classmates in the city. Teenage girls wear simple clothes, even if they are black or white. The boy's clothes are obviously just bought and look old. After a long time, I know people call it fashion, and their bright colors are rustic. Slowly, the concept is similar to theirs, but the standard is not in place, and I can't afford those clothes. The students' families are too poor, and a girl in the same group talks about the living expenses, which is eight times that of me. Fuck it, soil is soil, as long as it's not too cold or too hot. I don't care that much.

The ideas that can be formed at an early age have penetrated into the bone marrow, and they can't be changed anyway, and so can wearing clothes. I work in an office. It's a waste not to wear such good work clothes. The boss said that you don't go to the grassroots, there is no need to wear it; Go out with the leader, he is well dressed, and you are not happy to wear this leader. The leader of the last unit wore work clothes to work, and several young male workers in the office, like me, were farmers, and immediately put on work clothes. My own clothes are worn out, so I wear my father's. Their work clothes are of good quality, and they are denim, and the work cloth is very thick. One day, the main leader touched my jeans and said that the quality of this dress is really good. When will you wear it out? I realized that wearing this again would offend the leader, so I won't wear it in the future.

A few years later, I went to another unit to take charge of office work. I saw that before the Spring Festival, all the visitors were dressed appropriately, wearing suits and ties for the first time. The leader was very happy and said that he would wear it like this. You are the facade of the unit. Smoking should also be upgraded. Then I sent a tie clip and had someone buy me a good leather bag. After several years of hard work, the leader came back to my office to praise him, only to find that he was wearing clothes. This is beyond my expectation. But wearing a suit is not only troublesome but also uncomfortable. I worked hard for a month.

Few men care about such things, and women are more sensitive to what they wear. The year before last, a familiar female colleague asked me, did you rent this dress? I said it's not the company's. She said that you have been wearing it since winter, and it has been several months. I thought it was rented. Once I wore a pair of nice leather shoes, and this man was surprised and said, Do you wear shoes like this? I said, what happened? How many bowls of jiaozi should the poor eat during the Spring Festival? She knew the brand, asked the price and said there were many discounts. Knowing that they are brand-name shoes, I can't bear to put them away. After a few years, the soles were glued, and it cost another 50 yuan to sew them on.

Earlier when I went to Lankao, several women in the unit looked at me and whispered. I said, what are you laughing at? Bitch said with a smile, where are your pull-back shoes? I have a pair of pull-back sneakers to wear when I walk. The grown-up son was very unhappy and said, Dad, you don't want to wear these shoes. It costs eighteen dollars, and beggars don't wear them. I told you several times, all the good shoes were thrown away. I didn't expect these shoes to attract others' attention.

I mostly buy shoes in small shops, 100 yuan or so, I don't know the brand. Having dinner together one day, Professor Yang boasted that Big Brother was a local tyrant and wore high-grade brand-name shoes. Professor Yang is the son of the former Minister of Government Affairs of Taiwan Province Province. There are differences inside and outside. I didn't tell him the price. I nodded vaguely and did Sarah laugh. Taiwan Province Province is really a small place, and the princelings have no eyes.

I have quite good sewing skills, and I am good at mending clothes, especially socks. Turn the socks upside down and put a rolled magazine in them, which can be mended without pricking your hands. Sweaters, especially cashmere sweaters, are easy to wear around the waist where the keys are hung, so I will find a piece of cloth to sew in and continue to wear, or sew a piece of cloth in advance to wear. I can also mend holes and sewing lines, but only low-grade clothes can be mended, and high-grade clothes can't be mended. I don't wear it either. I don't usually develop sets, and I hang them in the utility room with my bags.

My wife disapproves of my saving money. She nagged at me when I was sewing. She said there was no need to be so shabby. Each dress can only be worn for a few years. You have so many clothes that sewing will always wear out-of-date clothes. This is not saving but wasting. You don't wear those clothes now, let alone go to work. What do you keep them for? But it's hard for me to throw away what I can still wear. Sewing is not mainly for saving, but for making yourself comfortable.

I once read an article "Life should be simple", which said that clothes that can't be worn should be cleaned in time. I think it makes sense. I find out the clothes I don't wear often and prepare to put them in the recycling cabinet in the community. After a few days, I still couldn't bear it, so I put it in the closet. Every time I finish mending clothes, I put the cloth head, big eye needle, thimble, cotton thread and wax thread into a wooden box in different categories under my wife's contemptuous eyes, ready to use it next time.

The wife concluded that a person's energy is limited. Thinking about sewing shoes and mending socks all day, do you have time to do anything else? No wonder you have accomplished nothing in your life. I thought to myself, what happened to my mending clothes? Didn't you also change from a so-called campus poet to a dissatisfied housewife? What did you do? Nobody laughs at anyone. But when I silently took off the advanced copper thimble specially bought online, I thought for a while and thought what she said was reasonable.

(Photography Cao Xinqing)

About the author: Laoch, a Kenli native.