As the years went on, the sweater-vest outfit never got old. Teacher Dale Irby, 63, has retired this year after a long and remarkable career in the Texas Public School system. His career-long fashion statement will live on in his absence; Irby wore the same coffee-colored sweater for his Yearbook photo year after year, for forty plus years.

Dale Irby, First (left) and last Yearbook.
(Photo courtesy of Dallas Morning News)

As the years went on, the sweater-vest outfit never got old.  Teacher Dale Irby, 63, has retired this year after a long and remarkable career in the Texas Public School system.  His career-long fashion statement will live on in his absence; Irby wore the same coffee-colored sweater for his Yearbook photo year after year, for forty plus years.

“I was so embarrassed when I got the school pictures back that second year and realized I had worn the very same thing as the first year,” says Irby.  After some urging from his wife, Cathy Irby, who found it humorous and wondered, “Why Stop?”   It became a “Groundhog Day” of outfits:  polyester, pointy collared shirt and a coffee cream colored sweater.

Forty years later the shirt still fits.  The clothes have even outlasted the store and the mall that they were originally purchased from.

What will become of the clothes now?   Irby has decided to give them a retirement of their own, in the back of the closet.   “I don’t think the Smithsonian would want them,”  he added.

(Video montage from Dallas Morning News)