Fat casual

For the first time in many years, I was young and hip, on the cutting edge of the latest trend, Saturday night.

At a wonderful family wedding Saturday night, all eyes were obviously on the beautiful bride. And my shoes.

I can confess, I was raised not being the “cool” guy. Hard to believe, isn’t it?

I’ve had glasses since I can remember, and back then, that was certainly a strike against you. There weren’t trendy websites where you bought multiple frames for every day of the week.

People even buy glasses now with no prescription, just because wearing glasses is cool. If that was in the case in 1972, my life would be diuerent today. I wouldn't have gone through the “What’s up four eyes” thing everyday. When I got to basketball practice, they wouldn’t have said, “Hey Goggles!”

Top that ou with a pair of chipped front teeth from a wicked biking accident with a parked car, and you know what my life was like on the mean streets of suburbia.

I persevered, always seemingly one step behind the really cool kids. I went to my eighth grade graduation in a hand-me-down leisure suit that went out of style a year or two earlier. I could grow a mustache at about the same time, but that was a couple years before Tom Selleck made that "the thing." Kids in high school were showing up at school after their 16th birthday in El Caminos and Mustangs. I had a Ford Pinto.

Flash forward a few (too many) decades. I’ve got the style thing down now. I wear my shirts untucked, even under a sport coat. It’s a look I call “fat casual.” I’m owning it. This untucked look is a trend, and it works well with, to put it politely, my build.

When my beautiful bride and I were departing for the wedding over the weekend, I scrambled to put together an ensemble that screamed out “FAT CASUAL!” Little did I know that a few hours later, by a minor omission in packing, I would be one of the cool cats, if only for a night.

There was obviously no way to upstage the beautiful bride.

My niece was absolutely stunning. Ranked perhaps after the bridesmaids and the guys in tuxes, though, there was one dude in his mid-50s who really, I think, stole the show.

I was tentative about it at first. Then, I embraced my new look.

We were changing into our wedding finest at the hotel prior to the big event, and I realized that I didn’t pack my dress shoes.

I panicked, found a Kohl's nearby and headed out. We were less than an hour from the start of the ceremony. The store was 15 minutes away, according to my phone. After 15 minutes, I had managed just to pull out of the hotel parking lot and get to my fourth travc signal in a half mile.

I glanced down at my Adidas sneakers. They were, as luck would have it, the same color as my tie. I called my wife and told her that I was just going to wear the shoes I had on. I expected ad- monishment. I thought she'd tell me to get diuerent shoes, even if it meant foregoing the vows.

She surprised me. “That’s what all the young guys do now, sneakers and suits.”

So sneakers and suits and now ovcially part of "fat casual."

BY JOHN MCLOONE