fete-ing the farsical friday five
1. What’s your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own?
Hand-knit striped Bolivian lamb’s wool sweater that I bought in the St. Olaf bookstore my freshman year of college. It’s often stinky and it’s incredibly scratchy but I’m so attached to it - even though it’s brightly colored, which normally would have no place in my wardrobe. It’s really, REALLY warm.
2. What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire?
This would be a two-way tie between a nice pair of knee-high boots and a real, honest-to-god leather jacket. I’ve had a couple of leather jackets in my life, but one I got at a garage sale and it was falling apart, and the other one is suede and fringe and not appropriate for most situations. Nate always used to tell me that you have a love affair with your first nice leather jacket, and I want to know what love is. (I want it to show me.)
3. What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? Why?
I have a new one of these every few of years, and it often seems to be boy-clothes. For a long time, it was this ratty, nasty-ass tangerine-yellow shirt that Joel had owned for about ten years, before giving it to me the day of the Northfield Monsoon (when we surfed down the hills in the mud all day). Eventually, I gave it to B—, and then gave it to Bailey to sleep on. At the moment, it’s probably my green cords. (Notsomuch boy-related.) They were my favorite pants in the WORLD … about twenty pounds ago. Hopefully, I will never be able to wear them again - but I can’t seem to send them on to another home.
4. What piece of clothing do you look your best in?
My black patchwork jacket, I think. It doesn’t have the sentimental value of the Bolivian sheep, but it’s probably the item I wear the most. Paired with, of course, the skirt that Gillian keeps threatening to steal RIGHT OFF MY BODY. (She’s even suggested that she’ll just crawl up underneath it and sneak it away when I’m not looking. I said I’d be down with that.) {Brief Gillian side note: She remembers what she was wearing on just about every single day of her life. Ask her sometime. She belongs on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.}
5. What has been your biggest fashion accident?
This is a moot question. I don’t believe in fashion accidents. Yeah, you might look at pictures later and say “Wow. Look at that.” - but if it achieved the desired effect at the time, who cares? I say wear what makes you happy. Self-expression is freedom, and all that. My freshman year of college, I did the goth thing. Black hair, black clothing, fishnets, combat boots, dog collars, black lipstick and nail polish, the whole nine yards. At the time, that’s what made me happy. My sophomore year of college, I had my skater punk phase. Shaved head of blue hair (with shaggy burgundy bangs), nose ring, fourteen earrings, tattoo, huge wide-legged pants, enormous sneakers, wallets with LONG chains, baggy shirts, you know the drill. *shrug* Wear what you like. If people have a problem with it, then it’s their problem.
1) The item I seem to have on just about every other day is a red zip-front cardigan.
2) Shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes. As I’ve mentioned 200 billion times, I have freaky-small wide-ass feet (5-1/2EE) so none of the cute shoes ever fit me. I want knee-high boots and red clogs and silver sandals and blue Mary Janes and maybe some shoes with flowers on them. I’m also looking for the right pair of jeans. You know the ones that sit right across the top of your hips and hug your butt and skim the top of your foot and aren’t too wide and aren’t too narrow and are just the right shade of slightly-faded dark blue? Yeah, those.
3) My Corn Ball dress. I bought a vintage party dress for Cornish College’s spring formal; it’s red and strapless, with a full skirt, tight bodice, and gathered fabric over the bust. It has big patch pockets and a few white daisies with black sequin centers scattered over the bodice, and the fabric is some late-50s rustly poly-satin, faded to a deep coral color. The waist is a little too small now, and it was always a little too short through the torso (strapless, remember? I have to be careful when I raise my arms) but I absolutely love it and I’ve convinced myself that I’ll fit into it again someday.
4) I love my vintage dresses with full skirts. Right now, I’m enamored of the Kennebunkport Virgin Dress (a white cotton sundress), which makes me feel crisp and classy and a little bit naughty.
5) Oh, I grew up in WhiteTrashville, AK, so I spent most of my teenage years in Keds, tight jeans, and oversized t-shirts. I’m always a little ashamed of how hideously boring I was.
Mols
1. rhinestone g-string
2. Givenchy couture Stetson hat made entirely of skinned weasels
3. huge nerdy “Princeton Marimba Festival” t-shirt. With matching hat! (I’m serious)
4. rhinestone g-string and weasel pasties
5. any of the above
Erin! I was watching Grunk play the Buffy the Vampire Slayer X-Box game tonight, and there’s a red-headed vampire chica in there who looks like you. You were kicking ass and sucking necks!
1. Probably my black suit. Comfortable and sharp.
2. A three-piece suit. That or one of those dress shirts that uses cufflinks.
3. My entire too-small-but-cool T-shirt collection.
4. Said black suit.
5. Most of my life.
Alicia, I have a pair of black knee-high high-heeled leather boots looking for a good home. What’s your shoe size?
9.5 - 10 … do you have great big feet like me?
No such luck… but I hope you get your wish somehow.
P.S…#2 - check and check. Hey, it only took a year!
really…niceness
#1hmmmm… do Shoes count? If not, any one of my on it’s way to being ratty gap-like pullovers would qualify.
#2 A Clean Shave
#3 My extensive rock and roll t-shirt collection, most of which has not been worn in over 8 years. Said collection probably numbers right around 100.
#4. Either one of the suits I bought right around the time Betsy passed away. Frankly, I need more reasons to wear them.
#5 Green Shirt, Pink skinny tie, Thompson Twins concert. The 80’s are dead, long live the 80’s!
S