ANDRE BEGIN

When I joined the workforce, no office outfit was complete without a crisp, clean, pressed shirt. That being the case, when I first moved out on my own, getting my own iron and ironing board was an absolute must to observe this unwritten clause of the office dress code.

On any given Sunday morning, you could find me religiously hunched over my ironing board, taking the wrinkles out of five or six office shirts in preparation for the work week ahead. It boggles my mind when I think back to the number of hours I spent ironing, sometimes in summer humidity, sometimes in apartments with no air conditioning. How much energy did I expend on this mind-numbing task?

If you couldn’t guess, I wasn’t a fan of ironing, but it was just something we did back in the day, whether we liked it or not.

I do recall some occasions when I had a lot going on and was short on time, energy, or both, that I decided to contract out the job and bring my shirts to the cleaners. For the most part, I think they did a very good job of pressing out the wrinkles. However, there were a few times when I’d still have to touch up a shirt or two when there were creases in places where there shouldn’t have been.

Fortunately, a few years later, I discovered permanent press and wrinkle-resistant shirts. To me, these were a dream come true as I could take them out of the washing machine, place them on a hanger and let them air dry. I didn’t have to worry about setting aside an hour and a half each week, getting every wrinkle out of every shirt.

Gradually, I phased out any shirt that required ironing and only purchased wrinkle-resistant clothing to make my life easier. To me, life was too short for spending hours ironing, even though I still liked the neat and crisp look.

However, after a break of about thirty years, I think it’s safe to say my view on wrinkles has relaxed.

Now, in retirement, I accept that not every outfit is dependent on a crisp, wrinkle-free shirt. A comfy 100% cotton shirt with a slight inclination to wrinkle is probably more appropriate for this lifestyle than the starched office shirt I would have worn to a job interview back in the day. I might still find myself wanting to pull out the iron and the ironing board to touch up certain items when a collar is sitting crooked or if we are attending a more formal event.

When ironing is truly the exception as opposed to the rule, I don’t mind doing it when it’s a matter of minutes rather than hours.

That being the case, I guess you could say I have surrendered to the wrinkles and just let them be, rather than fight them like a warrior on a Sunday morning, time that probably would have been better spent resting and relaxing.

But as we know, with fashion, the pendulum can swing back and forth. As office workers return to the workplace, who knows if designers will stage a comeback of the “pressed look” requiring an iron, an ironing board and time to smooth out creases and wrinkles to make sharp first impressions.

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Have a great day,
André