Here’s an idea: You have too many fire jawnz. Bear with me, my guy, I’m going someplace with this, just keep reading. You have too many fire jawnz, and every day, you suffer because of it. You go to work or class in full Rick Owens garb, and you terrify children on your daily commute. You wear a full Dries Van Noten floral suit just to go to the bodega. Normal people might put on some sweatpants to go outside and get the food delivery they ordered, and you, my friend, put on vintage raw denim, a silk shirt, and jodhpurs. You have a problem with flexing all the time, and this is an intervention.

I used to have a similar situation. I had too many strong willed sneakers. Each individual pair wanted to be the star of the outfit, even if that’s not what I wanted. Literally every one of my shoes was a high top, and each was considerably turbo for one reason or another. Sometimes they worked, sure, but in the same way that only owning monster trucks instead of cars works. Like, yeah, sometimes it’s sweet to drive a monster truck to work, but other days you just wish you didn’t have to use a ladder to get into your car, and sitting in traffic is really weird and alienating.

My solution? Well, it really had to be spelled out to me, because it’s so much fun buying monster trucks, but just look at what you own and think about what you’re missing. For me, that was a pair of black Vans. You know that one Onion article, where the headline states that an official at an FDA press conference just told the crowd to “eat a goddamn vegetable”? I just needed to buy some goddamn low tops. Owning Vans opened up an entirely new silhouette for me, and now that I wasn’t wearing huge sneakers all goddamn day, I could incorporate some different looks into my rotation. I suddenly had a sleeker silhouette that allowed for more attention to be put on other things instead of just my dumb shoes, and it strengthened my entire wardrobe.

Maybe your situation is exactly as I described, and you have too many of the same pair of shoes. Maybe you aren’t mixing up your outerwear enough, so no matter what coat you’re wearing, it doesn’t really change the outfit all that much. Maybe you’ve never worn pants besides a nice pair of jeans. I’m sure your shoes are all nice, I’m sure each of those coats are bangers, and I’m definitely not the right person to criticise wearing cool jeans all the time, but it can help to recognize monotony in your wardrobe. Those two pairs of shoes may be cool and easily distinguishable to you, but to the rest of your outfits, they’re both high tops, so they look the same. You can have the most expertly #curated selection of clothes but if everything has the same thing in common, it probably isn’t benefiting your wardrobe all that much.

So for your next sweet purchase, consider NOT flexing. You probably don’t need more dumb goth outerwear, you already have like 3 pieces, try and fill some holes in your wardrobe. Your pants all look the same, mix it up, incorporate something else into it! It’s important to have a sense of cohesion in your style, but it’s also important not to get caught up in a loop of doing the same thing over and over again. So whatever you do, remember, you don’t have to be flexing every time you get dressed. Sometimes it’s important to just wear a clean fit with some black Vans.