Tuesday Top 5: The Irony Creeps In...

Yesterday my friend Rachel and I were talking about the words and phrases she has deemed "irony creepers." For example, Rachel moved to southern California a couple years ago, and started calling frozen yogurt "fro-yo" as a joke, because a lot of people in WeHo (slang for "West Hollywood, and another irony creeper) call it fro-yo, but soon she was just calling it fro-yo all the time, because the word had somehow lost its ironic tone and crept into her permanent vocabulary.

I would say approximately 83% of my vocabulary is comprised of irony creepers: once upon a time, the phrases "mad scrilla" and "totes magotes" and "shmello" were silly things I said in silly voices, but now I say them often and unironically--yes, I very earnestly talk like a douchebag.

So anyway, this got me thinking: there are irony creepers in my wardrobe too, things that I first wore as a joke or as part of a costume, that are now on heavy rotation in the front of my closet. Here are five examples that immediately come to mind:

1. Furry trapper hats
I definitely bought my first trapper cap as a sort of "LOL what is she wearing on her head?" experiment, but then I fell in love with it. Now I own four.

This lady knows what's up.

2. My neon yellow jeans

3. Aviator sunglasses the size of dinner plates
In high school, my friend Carolyn and I delighted in a tradition we called "hoedowns," which basically meant that we went to Goodwill, chose the most awful, horrifying, ridiculous outfits for each other, and then wore them out in public. I once dressed Carolyn in a legendary jumpsuit made of floral burlap, and on one of these occasions an accessory to my lime-green polyester tube dress was a pair of huge aviators we found in the $1 bin. We laughed about how silly they were and took pictures and then I started wearing them everyday. And seven years later, I still do. They're even featured in my Twitter profile pic.

4. Sorel Snowboots

I asked for these boots for Christmas a couple years ago specifically because I thought they were ugly and utilatarian. But I also think they are totally awesome, and tend to wear them everyday when it gets cold. A couple weeks ago I wore them on a walk around a trendy part of Portland, and I was getting hit on so incessently that my friend asked, "Are you in heat?" I said, "No, I swear it's the boots!" I think their profound ugliness was attracting hipster boys like a moth to an ironic flame.

5. A large and varied collection of awful sweaters, featuring embroidered Santa Cats and random Korean phone numbers.

Do you guys have any irony creepers in your wardrobe? What about your vocabulary?

p.s. Big giveaway tomorrow! Come back soon, ya hear?