Now, I never wear the same shirt more than twice before putting it in the laundry, so I’m pretty impressed by a Texas teacher who wore the same sweater-vest/V-neck combo in every school photo for 40 years. As the Toronto Star reports, “63-year-old [Dale] Irby has dressed the same way for every school photo since [1973], and the images of him in those treasured garments have shot around the world on the Internet and on YouTube.” And you know it’s a slow news day when a Star reporter calls a retired gym teacher in Texas to ask about his wardrobe.
“I didn’t think it would go wild that quickly,” Irby told the Star from his home in suburban Garland. “That was stylish back then.” Yeah, for about five minutes… not 40 years!
The fashion faux-pas started innocently enough, mind you. As per the Star, “In 1975, Irby was embarrassed to discover he had unwittingly worn the same shirt and wool vest he had worn the year before. His wife made him a dare: do it a third year in a row.” And a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth, and a…
To be fair, the polyester-wool ensemble wasn’t worn on a regular basis for four decades. “I only took them out and wore them for about two minutes a year,” Irby told The Star. Even still, the newspaper notes that “The shirt’s colour has faded and the sweater has some holes.” That said, they’re probably still in better shape than most relics from the disco era. Hey, has anybody seen Giorgio Moroder’s moustache lately?
