I like to think that I dress like a fairly normal human member of society. I used to be a freak and wear mostly black, dark colors, and weird crap like a fedora and trenchcoats. And I was made to suffer for it. Oh yeah, many many times. And, it's not like I'm some scrawny dude you want to come up and ask sarcastically "Hey, are you Dark Man?" when it's a cold rainy day and there's no witness- eh, I mean, and no one can hear you scream. D'oh! Uh, yeah, I'm a big guy, I don't think I beg to be messed with. BUT, dressing like I used to, I'm surprised I didn't get into a brawl daily. I look back and shake my head.
Now, I don't know how I dress, but I'm not afraid of some color. Black accents, not dominates. I'm also dead broke, so most of my clothes are a few years old. Plus, I'm a big kid still really, so I'm not very good at clothes shopping. I can check the tag on my boxers to get new ones that fit and I know I like my t-shirts kinda on the xx-large side, but other wise, I'm pretty freakin' lost. Women are really handy for that sort of thing. Bless them.
These days, I think only my shoes, my winter jacket, and some t-shirts (the majority from various places people have gone and brought me back a t-shirt from) are black. I consider my "garb" pieces, what I have left, from my SCA days (shudder) as potential Halloween trappings, not daily wear. It's really a matter of getting older, and having more awareness of the world around me. Being big, stalky, and menacing with visible tattoos is really too much for most casual onlookers, so I really try to blend in as much as reasonable with normal folks as I can, without becoming just another rat in the cage of life.
At the risk of getting ranty, judgemental, and causing people to hate me again, I think more gamers need some freakin' self-awareness. As I moved out of my early 20's, I looked at some of my friends and saw myself in their eyes. I knew it was time to put certain things behind me. Now, there's nothing wrong with having a couple tokens of showing people that you are part of a cool subculture, but head to toe "uniforms" that you wear daily because "this is my expression of my dark inner edgy self" is just plain... weird. Maybe you don't care what other people think of you, but there's a point you kinda should draw the line. People DO judge you on the way you present yourself, whether you like it or not, and it can effect your life, sometimes in negative ways.
PS- I still have a couple big leather trenchcoats, and on really rainy days, yeah, I might consider wearing one, but in the winter, when it's rainy and windy, like when normal humans would wear them... Honestly, if I had my way, I'd wear a luchador mask all the time and make wild proclamations about my skill and prowess. But that's not reality, that's just a funny thought.
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