I’m Pretty Sure They’re Kidding But It’s Not Fucking Funny

This time, it’s actually a Thursday Styles story that makes you want to shit, piss and take out a machine gun and blow . . . Oops, was that out loud? “A Sense of Fashion is Lost in Transit”:

The cost of a transit strike to department stores and designer boutiques in New York during the week before Christmas and Hanukkah will undoubtedly be staggering. The cost to the greater cause of fashion could be even worse.

. . .

This week the strike began amid below-freezing temperatures, inspiring a few clever style strategies, but mostly a troubling assortment of faux pas. Some of them, like what appears to be a sudden outbreak of studiously mismatched winter accessories, are inexplicable in a city that should be accustomed to dressing for long stretches of cold weather.

“People are dressing like they work in outdoor booths at the flea market,” the designer Cynthia Rowley said.

. . .

. . . [T]he lasting trend is likely to be an incorporation of clothing designed for active lifestyles into business attire. Of the hundreds of bicyclists on the West Side Highway bike path and those walking their bikes across the Brooklyn Bridge, it was hard to guess where they were headed based on their spandex pants, Polar fleece parkas and towering layers of headgear.

Tony Melillo, the Generra designer, rides a bike to work year-round. He is befuddled by this sudden addition to the landscape, what he described as packs of riders wearing “weird, leotardy types of things and oversize purple Patagonia sweatshirts.” Mr. Melillo wears his own trim black sweat pants, a thin but heavy army-green coat from Burton and a baby blue cable-knit cashmere scarf from Charvet. His inspiration comes from the professionals, bike messengers who wear leggings under loose capri-length pants to avoid sticking in the gears.