Clothes: A Love Affair
Standing behind me, looking at my reflection in the full-length mirror, the store owner whom I had adopted as my role model for aging regarded the clothes I was contemplating buying and said, her hands on my shoulders, “Enjoy your body as long as you can.”
In my early 50s, I did not understand what she meant. Won’t it always be like this? I thought. I’d been tricked, you see, by the slowness of the change into believing it would not come.
*
We go to the beach for the family reunion, my sisters and me. Three of us appear at dinner in curated outfits. (Only one of the four sisters didn’t get the clothes gene, unless it’s a wedding, then watch out.) None of us dress alike. But we each put more emphasis on what we are wearing than, looking back, I see in the other women of the extended family. That’s why it took me so long to notice. Because my posse, without conversation, showed up dressed.
*
It’s what we held in common, my mother and me. Shopping. Loving clothes. Bragging about a bargain. She didn’t understand vintage, but she’d go with me to the Charlotte stores. I didn’t understand the outlets, but I’d go with her, driving almost two hours to get to the good ones. She had definite opinions (What’s wrong with you, you don’t like homemade mayonnaise?) but not about clothes. For that, from the moment I was three years old and pulled my frilly underwear on backwards so I could see the ruffles (“Gogi, the ruffles go in the back.” “I can’t see them in the back.”) she let me make my own clothing decisions. Given that permission, I have flown free.
*
I thought of my love affair with clothes today when spring was in the air. At one point in my life, the changing of the seasons made hope rise. Not because I expected new love or to be able to wander in newly-greening fields, but because I could buy new clothes.
The emotion coursing through me was nostalgia. Wistfulness for the long brown corduroy duster I’d once owned—it would’ve been a perfect throw for the outfit I had on. Which led to mourning for the yellow full-length slicker raincoat I loved until it fell apart. I thought not of the many clothes I have kept (no, not sensible “classic pieces,” unless you consider a splattered red and blue vinyl miniskirt is classic) but the ones I’ve given away. My best guess? Because—thanks to COVID keeping me at home and the neuroma in my foot making the perfect shoe hard and waiting for a real-skinny phase to wear the loud Pucci pants—the “enjoyment” part may be coming to an end.
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Even now, when I say I love my clothes, I feel brave in the face of those who believe clothes foolish, vain, shallow. But if I had sustained such a life-long love affair in any other subject, surely all would admire it? And recognize its loss as such.
I can only hope my husband will lay me out in the casket in a get-up that causes everyone to cluster on the sidewalk outside the funeral home asking in hushed tones, “Did you see what she had ON?”
classic clothes, fashion, love affair with clothes, Pucci pants
Julia coggins
I love those pants. You have always had a great sense of style. Keep it up Gogi and wear the ruffles on the front all you want to!! Happy Valentines to you and Tom.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
TY, Julia. I’m puffed with pride, given that you were my first style icon. True story, 7th grade, the great clothes you wore. Happy Valentines to you and Jesse, too.
Julia coggins
Really? I’m flabbergasted. Xo
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Oh, yeah. Your printed dress and matching chainlink pocketbook. I think you’ve told me you were not too fond of the outfit (maybe Flora Mae bought it for you???), but I loved it.
Julia coggins
She dressed me like a doll. Her own little doll. Take care . Making Carbonara!!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
👍
Joseph Hawes
No one in my family has the clothing gene, so this was a delightful and informative post
Ellen Morris Prewitt
TY, Joe. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Nature or nurture? Or the interaction of both? I wonder if anyone has studied it….:)
Luanne
Those pants are everything. I am not a clothes horse for myself AT ALL (mainly because I have ADHD and tactile comfort is everything to me), but I have a good sense of style for everyone else ;)! And appreciate offbeat style choices, too. This weekend was daughter’s wedding and one of her childhood friends (the one toting the older of two ring bearers) showed up in this amazing choker she picked up in Jerome, (an old mining town in the mountains). It had been in an old whorehouse (Jerome was known for those because all the miners were male and no other women lived in town except the sex workers). That choker was something else and looked PEREFCT on this woman. Now I’m mad I didn’t get a pic of her that day though I did the day before. Sorry for the tangent–had to share that. Oh, yes, you might like my daughter’s “welcome party” outfit for the wedding: white feather mini skirt and calla lily earrings.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I love when you post photos of clothes from your past–that’s my vintage obsession coming out! I can’t wait to see pics from the wedding, including and especially the white feather miniskirt. (I’d never heard of Jerome, but I had to Google it to find out, so now I know). Plus, I’m so glad childhood friends were able to attend the wedding—these COVID-delayed weddings are turning out to be so special!
Joanne Corey
I would posit that you will still find clothing enjoyable, just that you will need to find fun things that work for you now. It’s style evolution! (Of course, I don’t have a stylish bone in my body, so maybe that’s not the way it works.)
Ellen Morris Prewitt
No, you are right. Adjustment rather than loss. Evolution rather than devolution. If I can only remember that…