Whoah. It appears that yours truly can be found on the South End Open Market website. I only know this because a friend pointed it out to me. I’m incredibly impressed that my friend noticed this because I don’t think I’d notice it myself unless I was asked to play a game of “Where’s Andy?” with this image.

I know, I know… “God damnit, Andy! It’s that god damn blue flannel god damn shirt again! God damnit!”

Well, I’m proud to report that I no longer own this shirt. (in fact it allows me to date the above image.) I forfeited ownership of this shirt on Sunday May 4th, 2008. I know this because that’s the day that me and my “men’s image consultant” embarked on a very personal four and a half hour journey within the confines of a dressing room at Macy’s. I wore the shirt that day as a symbol of both my time of need and the changing of the guard that was about to happen. At this point, both elbows had worn through completely.

Yes, you read that right. A men’s image consultant. Yes, I’m a grown man and I can’t shop for myself. Does this really surprise you coming from the owner of the Clothes Matrix?

I returned to my apartment that day with five bags brimming with new clothes. I was literally sore from the activity. I tore up the blue flannel shirt, but I used my scissors to cut out a perfect square swatch of cloth to remember it by. I have this grand dream of doing this with all of my old favorites, over time having enough swatches to sew together a full shirt with them.

In the future I hope to share more about my personal shopping experience and why I felt the need to take such extreme measures. But for now you must excuse me while I go sue the South End Open Market for using my image without consent.

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