I’m trying to break out of some bad habits this January. Oh, I am still having popcorn and a beer for lunch, and watching Y&R, but I’m trying a new look. Well, I’m trying to try a new look.
I’m going to wear….wait for it....colour! And not a turtleneck!
I went shopping with my girlfriends this weekend, and as I left, my sweetheart sighed, ‘You’re not going to come home with another black turtleneck, are you?” The plaintive tone got me thinking about the uniform I've worn for more than a dozen years.
Yes, I have a uniform, and you do, too, if you think about it. Somewhere along the line, we all find an outfit or a style we think is flattering to us, and we sort of just… stay in it. (it's how your dad still wore those plaid pants until 1993 when your mom burned them....) A girlfriend of mine is almost never seen without a vest. Green and red and black and navy, sporty and casual, and somehow, even her fancy dressup clothes manage to be some version of a vest. I’m sure she doesn’t think about the possibility those vests could actually be armour, protection from a scary world, and holding in a body she’s afraid might get away from her.
For me, I think it’s a high school thing. (Can’t we blame every neurosis on the ravages of high school?) My family couldn’t afford the clothes the cool kids had (Vuarnet and Polo and lacoste, replaced now by Lululemon, Aeropostale and the iphone), but a plain turtleneck lent a certain poetry-writing gravitas to my Zellers wardrobe. And since high school, I’ve come to recognise the black turtleneck as a great leveller; the difference in looks between the 200 dollar cashmere and the 20 dollar cotton is negligible to most people. I have the cashmere, and I also have the cotton and hell, if they’re good enough for Nora Ephron, they’re good enough for me.
But back to the sigh from my sweetheart. "Perhaps a dozen turtlnecks and five twinsets is enough black for one closet," I thought as I drove to meet my lovely girlfriends. And so, today, with their help and advice, there are five colour new tops in my closet, chosen to show off 'the girls' in some cases and hide them nicely in others.
So far, the closet is where the shirts are staying, but I might, just might find a way to wear them out of the house. Tomorrow. Or maybe the next day.
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