During the recent women's wear shows I found myself on a bench at Tao Comme des Gar?ons (Tao being one of the young labels that is being developed under the CdG umbrella) sandwiched between Ikram Goldman, the eponymous owner of a store in Chicago, and Tricia Jones, editor of special projects for ID magazine. All of us looked with great desire at the shoes the models were wearing and whispered our shared product lust. The footwear in question were motorcycle boots wound round and round with studded leather chains at the ankle, and they were kind of cool and kind of fancy and kind of mad (in both meanings of the word), all at the same time.
最近幾場女裝秀期間，我坐在Tao Comme des Gar?ons（Tao是CdG品牌旗下正在主推的年輕品牌之一）秀場的板凳上，兩邊分別是芝加哥擁有同名商店的伊克拉姆?戈德曼和ID雜志特別專題編輯特里西亞?瓊斯。我們?nèi)齻€人滿懷垂涎之意望著臺上模特們穿著的鞋子，低聲分享著對這件商品共有的欲望。我們看上的是雙摩托車靴，踝部繞著一圈又一圈鑲有柳釘?shù)钠ゆ?。它們看上去有點酷、有點夢幻、有點瘋狂（或是愚蠢），而且是三種感覺同時兼?zhèn)洹?/p>

“I'm not sure what my kids would say, though, if I showed up with them on my feet at school,” I said, picturing the looks of horror on the faces of my seven- and nine-year-old daughters. Sometimes they just don't want to know about any latent biker fantasies a parent might have. My son, who is four, on the other hand, would just think the boots were neat. He's too young to understand sartorial subtext – though when I occasionally attempt to wear a Rick Owens harem-pant-style knee-length playsuit, which is kind of like the hippest LBD, even he looks a bit embarrassed and tells me to change my clothes.
“不過，如果我穿著它們出現(xiàn)在學校里，我不能確定我的孩子們會怎么說，”我說到，同時在腦海里勾畫我那兩個7歲和9歲的女兒臉上可能出現(xiàn)的驚恐表情。有時她們就是不想知道父母可能潛藏已久的摩托車手情結(jié)。而我那4歲的兒子只會認為這雙靴子很不錯。他還太小，無法理解著裝的潛臺詞——盡管當我偶爾試著穿上一套瑞克?歐文斯伊斯蘭哈倫褲風格的及膝運動裝時（有點像最具嬉皮精神的小黑裙），連他也會面露尷尬之情并讓我換件衣服。
　　
“I used to show up at school in my flight suit,” said Jones, whose children are now grown up. “We also had a car that we patched with rust-resistant paint whenever it got a scratch. The children used to make me park around the corner.”
“過去我常常穿著我的飛行服出現(xiàn)在學校里，”瓊斯說道，她的孩子現(xiàn)在都長大了?！拔覀冞€曾經(jīng)有一輛汽車，一旦車身出現(xiàn)劃痕，我們就會用一層防銹漆把它們蓋住。孩子們通常會讓我把車停在拐角處?！?br>　　
Dressing for the school run is, I have discovered, more fraught than I ever would have imagined. To be honest, I had never imagined it as an issue at all. Entering the workforce I had many male friends who felt wearing suits was akin to donning a disguise, and pre-and-post office hours immediately changed into their “real” clothes, but I have always worn pretty much the same clothes to work and play. Or at least I did. Until I looked at them through the eyes of my children, and my children's friends.
我發(fā)現(xiàn)，接送孩子時的著裝禮儀遠比我想象的更令人發(fā)愁。坦白說，過去我從不認為這是個問題。進入工作崗位時，我身邊有許多男性朋友覺得穿西裝就像是披上了一層偽裝，上班前和下班后會迅速換回他們“真正”的衣服。但我上班和平時消遣所穿的衣服基本上沒有多少差別?；蛘哒f至少我過去如此，直到我用孩子以及他們朋友的眼光來看待這些衣服。
　　
And I am not the only one: consider recent newspaper commentary about Victoria Beckham's “over the top” appearance at her children's school in Los Angeles in head-to-toe leather, including a shoulder-padded Balmain jacket and studded Dsquared trousers; or the praise by of Claudia Schiffer's and Elle Macpherson's “school run chic” (perfectly fitting jeans, sweaters, and flats, with scarves artfully flung around their necks). According to your outfits, your parental fitness will be judged.
而且我不是唯一這么想的人：仔細看看最近報紙上對維多利亞?貝克漢姆(Victoria Beckham)出現(xiàn)在洛杉磯她孩子的學校時那身“夸張”裝束的評論吧。她從頭到腳一身皮裝，其中包括一件墊肩的Balmain皮夾克，以及鑲滿柳釘?shù)腄squared皮褲；或是網(wǎng)站對克勞迪亞?席弗和埃莉?麥克弗森“接送孩子時髦裝束”（完美合身的牛仔褲、套頭衫、平底鞋、脖子上優(yōu)雅隨意的圍巾）的贊美之詞。人們會根據(jù)你的衣著來判斷你是不是稱職的父母。