DUMMIES (October 25, 2012)
I dreamt that I was looking through photographs of male clothing made by a famous company. They showed all sorts of jackets, pants, shirts, ties, shoes, and socks. The models were smiling young men with elaborate hairstyles. At some point I saw two photographs showing the same young man wearing different clothing. Everything in the two pictures was identical except his clothing. The young man even had the same body posture and the very same smile. Looking like a mannequin, he struck me as funny. I remember carefully comparing the two photographs and laughing. Only the clothing was different. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I recollected some of the images my No. 1 son had showed me of his work first at Ralph Lauren and then at Brooks Brothers, where he is now dealing with user experience. That was just before I went to sleep last night. In my dream I came upon something that people in his industry must avoid like the plague: models looking like dummies. Before I fell asleep again, I hoped I would remember the dream, so that I could talk about it with my son.