Being fashionably fly at Christmas time

Will you believe me when I tell you that I didn’t pay close attention to the recent Fashion Week in NYC? So forgive me for just noticing, thanks to a posting at Field&Stream.com, this dress at left — a get-up from the Giles 2009 Ready-to-Wear Collection (top row; photo by Marcio Madeira). This young woman is swathed in numerous images of traditional salmon flies. She looks like a page out Favorite Flies come to life (an old, venerated fly-fishing book by Mary Orvis Marbury). 

This dress reminds me of a small problem that I run into at Christmas time (retail holly-jolly starts now): fishing-themed gifts, specifically clothing and home furnishings. I’m talking about things like neckties with images of trout or salmon; bed clothes covered with fly patterns; highball glasses etched with leaping marlin. 

I have a few of these things, and desire no more. I fish, a lot, but it’s not my “life pattern,” so to speak. I don’t want a fish-shaped wall clock, or socks with bass on them. Fortunately, my family knows this, and they usually ask me what I might want for Christmas. If it’s clothing, it’s definitely not plaid or tartan — I suppose that’s unoutdoorsy of me, but either pattern gives me vertigo — and if it’s fishing related, it’s an actual piece of gear. 

Golfers, hunters, runners, tennis players, car-nuts, and other “enthusiasts” face the same dilemma: Another Christmas (or birthday or Father’s or Mother’s day), another themed coffee mug, blanket, rug, or stuffed animal. 

But some people actually enjoy these kinds of things — the amusement and thoughtfulness behind the gift aren’t lost on such folks. 

So where do you stand, readers — do you love these things, tolerate such things, or politely refuse them entirely? Because Christmas is coming. . .

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Now, a note about this blog: 

I’ve had a lot of fun doing this, and I’m coming back for more. But first, I’m going on a little expedition, possibly a first in the young but growing history of True/Slant. It’s a bit of a secret, but it involves a certain large and famous cryptid. 

When I’m back, you’ll get the full story of the venture in a relaunch of my space here at T/S, when I’ll be expanding my ground just a bit, to talk about more than just the digital noble savage in the outdoors. But I’ll always stay on the python hunt and the giant jellyfish beat, and remain determined to get rich with Ganjaflage. 

I had hoped to leave you with a video of the original, extended trailer to the 1977 classic film, The Mighty Peking Man, set to The Who’s “The Seeker,” which I found on YouTube and which is/was utterly glorious. You’ve no idea. But, alas, the genius who posted it has since taken it down. That’s a shame. If you can find it, watch it. 

Back soon.