Originality is the fine art of remembering what you heard,
but forgetting where you heard it.
(I forget where I heard this.)
-------------------------------------
but forgetting where you heard it.
(I forget where I heard this.)
-------------------------------------
Many people have told me that they like the way I dress. Guys tell me I dress "touchably", but not flashily or provocatively.
I like loose clothing that I can move in. My favorite slacks (many pairs in black, and one each in the few other colors they come in) are a smooth knit with lycra, loose and flowing, swinging to brush the calf. I don't care for cotton or demin on my legs, because my legs are so very short, and by the time I get a non-stretch fabric loose enough to not constrict, my legs look even more stumpy. The few jeans I have are fake demin - stretchy with lycra.
I currently have no short skirts. They're all long, ankle or below, because I don't like to show my short muscular legs.
I almost never wear T-shirts because the high round neckline does not flatter my face. I wear knit tops, but with V, turtle, or scoop necks. I prefer micro-knit to cotton because they're silkier and feel good. I wear kurtas, because they are beautiful and loose. I have a very few button-front shirts/blouses, and those I do have are dressy, and I wear them open over a shell, like a light jacket. I have a problem finding them to fit, because my bust is way out of proportion to my shoulders, and if I size them to button, the shoulder seam is halfway down my short arms to the elbow, or if it's sleeveless, the armhole is huge. Looks awful.
(I do have some grungies - cotton knit pants, a pair of baggy jeans, some of Jay's old shirts, some Ts - but I almost never wear them off my property. Just ain't gonna happen.)
So, what's the problem?
The same guys who tell me they love the way I dress (women rarely say anything) also tell me I always overdress. The Man once asked me, "Don't you have any ordinary shirts?" Well, no, I don't. We'll go to karaoke in a bar, and all the other females there are wearing jeans and T-shirts or cotton blouses, and I'm wearing my black silky slacks and a hand-painted silk kurta. I don't feel out of place, because for me, that's ordinary attire, equivalent in my mind to their jeans. Being dressed perhaps more "nicely" doesn't make me stiff or stuck up. I bounce around and have just as much fun.
It's not like I'm overly concerned about appearance. I rarely wear makeup these days, can't remember the last time I set my hair, and don't polish any nails. I just like to wear pretty and comfortable things, and I do believe that what you choose to wear reflects your level of respect for the places you go and the people you're with.
I see guests on daytime TV talk shows, and I wonder, "Did they know they'd be on TV today?" I've seen people going to church on Sunday in clothes I would wear to paint the kitchen. To me, this seems disrespectful.
But then, I come from an era when women wore a hat and gloves to church, and even to visit the neighbor's kitchen for coffee. The year I started college (1962) was the first year gloves were not required in the dining hall at dinner. We were still required to wear skirts, stockings, and high heels. To dinner. In the college cafeteria.
Things have changed.
.
1 comment:
Of course when I was a kid, we always wore dresses to church and Easter called for a new outfit - from white patent leather shoes to lacy gloves to hats. And the dress always itched like mad.
One of the priests at my church is constantly scolding the congregation about the way they come to church - in shorts, halter tops, beach cover ups in the summer. I think it's finally beginning to sink in.
And you are absolutely right about how you dress reflects the level of respect for the people you're with and the place where you are.
Post a Comment