Meet the Editor, Jay Gordon

A personal quest

When it comes to apparel, there are two things that have bugged the heck out of me ever since I was old enough to wear a pair of pants and a shirt (and care what they looked like).

First, it has been utterly impossible for me to find a pair of khaki pants that fit me just right and wear well. Either they fit in the waist and the length is off, or vice versa. Some wrinkle if you look at them funny. Others fit OK, but the look is ruined because of pleats.

Yes, my sense of hopelessness has deepened as I’ve entered middle age carrying some extra weight, but this has been a problem for 20 years – even when I was still relatively svelte. I realize that I can solve the problem with unhemmed pants that fit in the waist, but that adds both cost and inconvenience to the equation. I haven’t given up (yet) on the notion that I can find what I’m looking for “off the shelf.”

Second, I have been equally frustrated in my search for a truly wrinkle-free shirt that can be machine washed and worn without shame or self-consciousness right out of the dryer. With three school-age kids and my wife and I both working full-time, ironing just doesn’t fit into the schedule for our family. But we’re also tired of helping our dry cleaner fund their kids’ college education. We’ve got to save some of that money so our own kids can go to college someday.

And so I have decided to embark on a personal quest to find my own version of the Holy Grail: The perfect pair of khakis, and the perfect no-iron shirt to go with them.

I freely admit this is a largely selfish quest, and yet it occurs to me that a simple outfit such as this constitutes a uniform for probably millions of people. I’ll bet that at least a few of them—and perhaps many of them—have wished the same wish as me. So there is a higher purpose here as well.

If you are a supplier and you have khakis and/or no-iron shirts in your catalog, I urge you to drop me a line at the address below. I will provide you with complete sizing information and a rundown of the procedure I plan to use to test these garments. In a nutshell, I plan to wash them (according to the manufacturer’s directions), wear them, wash them and wear them again, evaluating fit, appearance, comfort and, of course, the “wrinkle factor.”

I also encourage you to contact me with advice you may have. We can all learn from one another. In any case, I look forward to sharing the results of my quest with you

Dress Jay

It’s probably too late for me to reconsider my career path in favor of medical school, but it sure is tempting based on how comfortable these new Feather Soft scrubs are. Who wouldn’t want to wear these to work every day? For details on the scrubs, turn to page 16. And if there’s a uniform you’d like me to feature here, drop me a line at the email address below.

Jay Gordon
jgordon@asicentral.com