pimp not me

I was standing on the subway platform today awaiting the N train to Brooklyn and scanning the crowd of people around me. Usually in Union Square there is an eclectic mix of people from high NYU students to Urban hipsters to High New School students. The usual.
Then I looked behind me, and there was the most pimptacular man I've ever seen.
He was a black man, wearing short dreads held back with a gold cord. He wore some fly Kanye West glasses and a set of slick looking wireless earphones. He wore blue pin stripe pants, a white shirt, with a white sweater vest, and a white tailored jacket with a crest on the pocket. And the best part:
A White LEATHER tie.
Now barring that it is 1986 and you are David Lee Roth going to the MTV movie awards most people today could not pull off a white leather tie. But this guy was so fly and knew it that and looked so flawless on him that any other tie would have been ludicrous and insulting.
Then I looked at myself and saw an overweight guy wearing jeans from Old Navy, a blue and white baseball shirt and my Astros hat. At my side was my bright yellow Ubertoast bag and my glasses. I was proud because I had gone down a couple of sizes in my pants from Double Fatass to Chunkmaster regular.
Living in a fashion conscious place like New York has made me aware of how I dress. Many of you knew me in College when I would literally roll out of bed and go to school in torn sweat pants and a Legend of Zelda t-shirt. That would probably not fly here in New York. Unless you are homeless. Then it's ok. If your homeless you can wear the head of a large Bart Simpson doll who you decapitated as a mask and no one looks twice. Artsy people here often go for the poverty look which can cost you around $100 to achieve from shops around Greenwich village.
I for one have adapted my way of dressing a bit. I'm a more fashionable version of myself. I have a kind of dork-chic Filmmaker thing going for me. Not spectacular but not too reminiscent of the guy on the subway that is singing songs from Purple Rain and smells like a rotting raccoon pita stuffed with cat shit. Life is all about compromise.