On Monday morning, 36-year-old marketing executive Michelle Hollingsworth pulled a shirt and a skirt out of her closet and was amazed at what she discovered: she had never before worn them together.
The shirt was a horizontally-striped red and blue button-down that Hollingsworth purchased from The Limited in 2009 with a Christmas gift card given to her by her now-deceased grandmother. The skirt was a red knee-length she got from Filene’s Basement on a whim while shopping for a winter hat in late 2011, or possibly early 2012 – she’s not sure.
“I can’t believe I’ve never worn this shirt and this skirt at the same time,” Hollingsworth said, flabbergasted. “It seems like such an obvious combination. They both have red in them, for example.”
Hollingsworth recalled a disastrous recent date in which she had worn the red skirt with a white blouse. “He spilled tomato sauce all over my shirt,” she said. “That probably should have clued me in to wearing a top with red in it with the skirt!” she chuckled. “But no. I just never even thought of it.”
She had last worn the striped shirt with blue jeans during one of her company’s casual Fridays, in which employees are permitted to wear office-appropriate jeans with business-casual tops and nice shoes.
“It’s funny, because jeans are blue,” Hollingsworth said. “So you’d think I would have thought: red and blue shirt with a blue bottom, so what about a red and blue shirt with a RED bottom?” She shook her head. “It’s weird that I never though of it. I mean, I’ve had these items of clothing for years and it just never registered in my brain to wear them at the same time.”
Hollingsworth has a date lined up for this Friday night. “I might wear the skirt again, but this time with a black shirt.” She explained, “It’s with the same guy who spilled tomato sauce on me. I don’t really like him, but it beats staying in.” She then updated her OK Cupid profile and sighed.
