As mentioned before, its a bit of a concern for a man who desires to cover his body is where his clothes came from. Not just in their "fashion", but where and by whom they were fashioned.
Consider this photo.
If you don't know this man, Mr Peck, he's here to prove a point outside of the courtroom. Consider that he is wearing a seersucker suit. He found out about this fabric, because it's cool and he lives in the south. He talks to a tailor, his tailor gets the fabric, measures him up, makes a suit, adjusts it and then he wears the heck out of it.
When you see photos of men from back in the day, they all seem to have well fitting suits. That's because they were custom made. When we say custom now, we think luxury, but that was before mass production of polyester and when the man down the road had the last name "Tailor" for a reason.
As a Catholic, would we not consider this more ideal? A few items of clothing made by hand by a man we know who feeds his family by making and standing by the work of his hands? - there's something right and fitting about that. We know his name, we have his "product" - better yet, "craft" - for a large chunk of our life and we go to him if we gain a few, loose a few or get a snag in the park.
But, it's just not like that anymore and we have to accept that. It may be unreasonable to have a suit made for us, but if we could do that - ya know... interact with someone who cares about their craft and not just making a buck with a mass produced piece of crap garment - if we could do that we would and should. We're Catholics!
But most of us can't.
In this vein however, I'd still point us to thinking and considering our clothing more. Not just asking whether we're going with the flow of mass produces, ill-fitting, fake, exploitative fashion, but whether we're thinking a bit about our habits. Is grabbing a tie from Wal Mart "poverty"? Does paying less mean we have true thrift? How long do those things last? How often do we just stop by in a pinch and grab whatever we need at a cut rate price? Really, how man times are we going to do that before we consider the habit? I can tell you one thing, it may involve poverty, but it ain't yours.
Don't worry, practical solutions are coming. Be prepared to learn the laws of thrifting.
