Monday, October 1, 2012

New Trends in Web Design -ers Closet

I just returned from a Breaking Development conference in Dallas, Texas and despite reinforcing my fears that the world is going to smaller and smaller screens and that I will have to adapt accordingly, I learned something very interesting.
There is a stereotype out there that web folk are either really hip or really nerdy. Well this stereotype is for the most part true, but there is a contingent in this profession that don't fit the mold, the in-betweeners. We do exist and apparently I did not get the memo that I need to wear cotton plaid button down shirts.
Now I will admit that I am way out of touch with anything that resembles fashion. My wife still can't figure out how I can wear LL Bean slip on shoes to work or Crocs with socks any other time. (Don't judge -- I like to be comfy!) This resurgence of cotton plaid has me perplexed though. Are the hippest of the hip really wearing these things and now we are all following suit? Has this been going on for some time and I am just way out of touch? Am I to glean some irony from this trend or is something more sinister at play?
Flannel in the 90's because it was just really cold in Seattle. Now 10-15 years later, due to global warming, we have the same thing just in a lite version. I guess if I want to be taken seriously as a web developer, I am going to have get me one of these relics of 70s and fall in line. My only fear is that once I do, everybody else will be in a pink Izod with a flipped up collar.