fashionista

No one could ever accuse me of being a fashionista. I only dress up when I have to perform, and that generally includes variations on a theme of black, and I don't wear heels unless it is absolutely necessary. And my definition of when heels are absolutely necessary is "almost never", the notable exception of late being a few performances of an art song recital with a voice professor friend of mine. Singers have a way of performing in fancy-schmancy clothes, and their pianists ought to follow suit!

In any case, my daily attire usually consists of jeans and cheap, plain t-shirts from Target, which are fine and all, but lately even those are wearing out, so I decided to go shopping this afternoon to try and alleviate my wardrobe problem. My birthday was about a week ago, and I told Stuart that part of my present would be an opportunity to buy some clothes without feeling guilty about it, and he didn't argue.

So I spent the whole afternoon at the large mall on the west side of Madison, and to be honest, it was nearly awful (only nearly, because I didn't leave empty-handed). My feet hurt and after three hours I didn't find one, not a single, solitary shirt that I liked. I must have wandered through ten stores, and they were all filled with hideous crap, some of it expensive hideous crap, but crap all the same. All I could find were tops featuring peplums or batwing sleeves or hemlines that look like a drunk cut them out. And the colors! Sherbet orange, vile green, and pinkish coral, none of which I can wear with any sort of dignity, batwing sleeves or no. And I bet I'm not the only one.

Fortunately, brightly colored corduroy skinnies are in, so I came home with a pair of red ones, plus a skirt, and a nice pair of black pants to add to the rotation of accompanying attire.

Seriously, is it just me, or are the fashion trends this season just Awful? Like capital A Awful? Maybe it is just me, aging a bit and stuck in my ways. I mean, if I could really dress the way I wanted all the time, I'd just live in black t-shirts, skinny jeans (or bright cords!) and hand knit sweaters with boots in winter and $3 flip-flops in summer. (I need shoes, too, but ran out of gas before I could even start looking.)

I just want to wear something other than the tired SAHM uniform, at least every now and then. I don't need to be a fashionista every day or be on top of every trend...goodness knows neither the budget nor our small house with tiny (ahem, inadequate) closets could hand it anyway. Today I was hoping to find a few nice tops, maybe something with a cowl neck or tunic length with cool pockets or even just stripes in colors that won't make my skin look green. I guess I picked the wrong season. Maybe next year the trends will improve.

Comments

Claire said…
Have you been to Stone's Throw on Monroe St? I really like that place AND they have a really, REALLY nice second hand section of either slightly used (the same brands they sell) and super-reduced-never-sold clothes, too. If you have any steam left, I'd check that place out.
Unknown said…
Maybe you could embrace your preferred wardrobe (except in performances, of course) - it's your style and I think that jeans (or bright corduruoys!) with a black t-shirt (or sweater) is a classy presentation. You could always choose to add a scarf with color, and you can get different styles of black shirts to change things up... and I always enjoy changing up the shoes (that's my bigger weakness in fashion - don't care as much about the clothes, but I love the shoes). I had great luck finding lots of great black clothes at TJ Maxx several years ago when I was working as assistant stage manager for Madison Opera.
Steph said…
I so hear you on the batwings. They are ubiquitous now. From whence, and why??

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