No matter how you slice it, the clothes we wear are important. Not only do our clothes provide warmth and protection from the harsh Southwestern Ontario climate, they are also key in the exposition of our identity to the outside world. Through our clothing, we tell people a little story about who we are, what we believe in, and what we like.
Consider: What type of person would walk down the street in a sleeveless denim jacket with a ketchup stained undershirt and some nice short-short jean cutoffs? You know exactly the kind of person I’m talking about. If your answer was “Jeff’s Dad,” then you are a horrible person. Dave would never cut off the sleeves on his denim jacket.
But what if you couldn’t choose the clothing you wore? What if you were forever doomed to wear kids clothing? This is an unfortunate, and sometimes terrifying, reality for many adults with disabilities, whose bodies don’t fit in the typical adult sizes and are forced to wear youth sized clothing. For me, this means spending a lot of time shopping at places like GAP Kids, The Children’s Place and J Crew Kids, where I can find adult-appropriate fashion in youth sizes and as frustrating as it can be, I have it easy compared to women. You see, often men’s fashion is pretty similar from child to adult. Yes, there are definitely a lot more Spiderman or Bob the Builder graphic t-shirts in youth sizes, but there are also lots of white collared shirts and normal looking jeans that I can wrap myself in and quite successfully pretend that I’m a real adult. This strategy is a lot harder for women, though, as the differences between girls’ and ladies’ fashion can be quite divergent, if only in colour palette (hot pink is not always the most appropriate colour.)
I’ve long considered attempting to protest this injustice by perhaps wearing nothing but blankets, but I quickly decided against this when I realized I would look less like a noble freedom fighter and more like one of these guys. Instead, I decided to do the next best thing–make a comic about it.
PS: Dave Preston does not own a denim jacket or short-short jean cutoffs. I clarify only because he used to be a police officer and I’m pretty sure he can make me disappear.