Fugly!
Ah summer...when women in Washington dress really badly. Spring is good because they've all bought new clothes but by August, most women here have fallen back into the pattern of ugly clothes-witness the three awful outfits I saw on my way to work today.
The first offender was not the worst but the thing is, her dress could have been cute-it was such a waste. The dress was white, in a soft cotton jersey-like material. It had a pattern on it in pale blue and dark green-yes it reminded me of a shirt I had in 7th grade but nonetheless it was nice. Bateau neck, sleeveless...and a two-foot wide waistband that went from mid-chest down to mid-thigh. In dark green. Why oh why? I was looking at the dress approvingly, expecting a three-inch wide sash at the waist-and was horrified when I saw what was actually there. This dress had real potential-and I'm still not sure of the point of it. Was it to hold her stomach in? She was fairly slim, so I really didn't see the need-but she wasn't really really skinny, so there was no need to draw such attention to that part of the body. It was just weird.
And then there was offender No#2. Her fuchsia sundress was a shapeless schmatta. If I had seen it on the beach, I wouldn't have looked twice-but on the street, with her sneakers and socks (a topic for another day, but speaking as someone who has walked to work for eight years, I tell you that you CAN find cute walking shoes that don't hurt your feet. The sneakers, socks and a dress or skirt should be left to die by the side of the road) it was awful. It might have been saved with a cute pair of sandals, but it was not to be.
Third was actually painful to look at and was worn by someone who looked like she wanted to try to look nice but had no idea what to do. It reminded me a bit of a girl I knew in grad school whose clothes never seemed to match-and of whom another classmate said that she looked like her mother dressed her every day. Well, except for my mother, who, having seen me wearing something like this, would have said "you're wearing that?" Or "that doesn't match"-words she said to me this summer when I was wearing khakis (doesn't everything go with khaki?) and a pale blue and white top. We had to agree to disagree on that-but I think we would have agreed that the rumpled sage green skirt (to the knee, wide waist band, gathered) and the black and white horizontally striped t-shirt was terrible. Was there something wrong with a plain white t-shirt? Yes, the skirt was rumply and not flattering but black and white striped with sage green? It was painful.
Also, I reread Shadow Castle and it was fabulous. I can see why my 10 year-old self liked it. It was clever and funny and surprisingly progressive for 1945. Maybe it was still in the shadow of WWII, where women did much of the work of men-before the guys came back and women go back to "their place", thus setting the stage for the oppression of the 50's and the Liberation movement of the 60's.
But I digress. It was a great book and I still loved it.
The first offender was not the worst but the thing is, her dress could have been cute-it was such a waste. The dress was white, in a soft cotton jersey-like material. It had a pattern on it in pale blue and dark green-yes it reminded me of a shirt I had in 7th grade but nonetheless it was nice. Bateau neck, sleeveless...and a two-foot wide waistband that went from mid-chest down to mid-thigh. In dark green. Why oh why? I was looking at the dress approvingly, expecting a three-inch wide sash at the waist-and was horrified when I saw what was actually there. This dress had real potential-and I'm still not sure of the point of it. Was it to hold her stomach in? She was fairly slim, so I really didn't see the need-but she wasn't really really skinny, so there was no need to draw such attention to that part of the body. It was just weird.
And then there was offender No#2. Her fuchsia sundress was a shapeless schmatta. If I had seen it on the beach, I wouldn't have looked twice-but on the street, with her sneakers and socks (a topic for another day, but speaking as someone who has walked to work for eight years, I tell you that you CAN find cute walking shoes that don't hurt your feet. The sneakers, socks and a dress or skirt should be left to die by the side of the road) it was awful. It might have been saved with a cute pair of sandals, but it was not to be.
Third was actually painful to look at and was worn by someone who looked like she wanted to try to look nice but had no idea what to do. It reminded me a bit of a girl I knew in grad school whose clothes never seemed to match-and of whom another classmate said that she looked like her mother dressed her every day. Well, except for my mother, who, having seen me wearing something like this, would have said "you're wearing that?" Or "that doesn't match"-words she said to me this summer when I was wearing khakis (doesn't everything go with khaki?) and a pale blue and white top. We had to agree to disagree on that-but I think we would have agreed that the rumpled sage green skirt (to the knee, wide waist band, gathered) and the black and white horizontally striped t-shirt was terrible. Was there something wrong with a plain white t-shirt? Yes, the skirt was rumply and not flattering but black and white striped with sage green? It was painful.
Also, I reread Shadow Castle and it was fabulous. I can see why my 10 year-old self liked it. It was clever and funny and surprisingly progressive for 1945. Maybe it was still in the shadow of WWII, where women did much of the work of men-before the guys came back and women go back to "their place", thus setting the stage for the oppression of the 50's and the Liberation movement of the 60's.
But I digress. It was a great book and I still loved it.
posted by SHbookworm at 5:45 AM
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