Is this:
Once a week I will wear a tie
So for those of you just joining in, this is my second week as Senior Web Architect (hey look at the guy with the job title) at Ports, a major international clothier. Ports produces the single most successful clothing brand for the Chinese market (Port International) which is why you’ve probably never heard of it. There are a great many things (like Xu Jinglei) that are phenomenally popular with literally a billion people but about which everyone outside China is blissfully unaware. We also have a tres chichi red-carpet brand called Ports 1961.
The problem with working with people who jet off to New York for Mercedes Fashion Week is that I dress like someone who hops boxcars to Aberdeen for the Loggers’ Carnival. There is a certain bar for stylish workwear at this office and I am way, way below it.
Compounding my problem is that I completely failed to anticipate the Xiamen climate. When we decided to move Xiamen last year, I looked a globe and saw that Xiamen is at the same latitude as Cuba and figured, “hey, now I can sell all my sweaters.” Suffice to say, this was a Bad Decision. Right now it’s about 12C (54°F) here in Xiamen, where the buildings have neither insulation or central heat and I own exactly one sweater. Which isn’t even very warm. So I can’t do what unstylish people in cool climates do, which is put on a nice sweater (because everyone looks better in a nice sweater?).
Thus the new dress code. I figure if once a week I wear a tie (even if, like today, I’m wearing it with brown jeans and my retro digital watch), people might remember me as “the guy who wears a tie.” (Despite their stylishness, my coworkers indeed seldom wear ties). This way I can spend the other four days wearing hoodies and Chuck Taylors. It’s like Casual Day, but in reverse.
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