A recent WSJ article advised men over 40 that to be fashionable, they should buy $845 sneakers to wear with a $2,000 sweater. The definition of a fashionable person is one who dresses according to the current trend. So if we want to be fashionable, we should do what the trendsetters tell us to do. But wait. Trendsetters are the ones that told us to wear dashikis, Nehru jackets, half-buttoned disco shirts, leisure suits, Miami Vice pastels, and parachute pants. Everything fashionistas declare to be “in” is also an early definition of “passé.”

Leading Edge Rejectors, a study of people in their fifties and sixties, asked Baby Boomers what they would do differently if they had a chance to do it all over again.

One universal response was they would care less about how others see them, especially when it came to clothing. Followup studies show Leading Edge Rejectors are abandoning fad-chasing for label-less clothes that are comfortable and easy to care for. They are moving from the superficial to the meaningful.

As one person described the latest in tightly-fitting men’s suits: “Why would I want to look like Pee Wee Herman?”