Posted by
AudiR10TDI on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 2:06:42 PM
June 19, 2007 -- Let the record show that I loathe shopping for clothes. Much of my wardrobe is older than most of my friends; I have kept it in good condition and since I don't care if I am fashionable or not, it does me very well.
This month I have had to buy two items that have brought home to me forcefully that Time Marches On and fashion has not marched with it -- except when, to my secret delight, it has.
First, I had to buy a bathing suit. The only shop left on God's Green Earth that realizes that a woman who is nearing sixty should be, as Daddy says, Covering the Subject, is Lands End. They sell what is known as the "tugless tank suit" that does not need to be tugged upward to cover the boobies or downward to cover Evrything Else. Finding a bathing suit off the rack that is not either ludicrous on someone my age or reminiscent of something peoples' Bubbes wore in the 1950s is a task fit for the Gods. I have found something that will do; however, it is neither fashionnable nor even smart and just looking at it makes me sigh. I think I will have to go to Lands End again eventually, as they alone realize that the fact one must cover things up does not mean that one wants to look like Summer in the Catskills.
The other thing I had to buy was a slip. Well, I still have to buy one. Apparently while I was wearing the one I bought in the 1970s, which is actually too short and has been for about 30 years, they stopped making them because girls don't wear undergarments anymore. Perhaps that is the purpose of the Thong, which is neither comfortable nor attractive, so that the buttocks which are no longer concealed by anything can be clearly visible to the world. Which may be fine if you have perky, toned buttocks but give me a break. Anyway, none of the shops downtown have this garment for sale and the young store clerks looked at me as if I had asked for corsets. Perhaps when I am in Alabama next month, where the population is considerably older, I will find something a little more modern than what I have.
But the funny thing I did notice while in Winners (which does not sell undergarments at all) is that the Seventies have Come Back. In fact, I saw a cheap knock-off of a Ralph Lauren suit I bought in 1974 that I still have (God alone knows why) -- modeled on the Nehru Suit, khaki with large brass buttons with some quasi-military symbol on them, it hangs in my closet along with my paisley Granny Dress with the empire waist and crocheted cream lace collar (which I wear with a straw cartwheel hat and look rather like a collision between Her Majesty the Queen and Miss Haversham). The sailor version I had has long ago worn out and been discarded; besides, i had shortened the skirt to the point where nobody my age would wear it. Winners is rife with examples of Seventies Chic. Fortunately I have kept my sense of humour and realize that things that didn't look good on me when I was under 30 will certainly not look good on me now that I am just barely under 60.
But it does tickle my sense of fun to see the signs saying "New for 2007!" over stuff that is recycled from 1972.
Time marches on, but apparently some people never learned that if it didn't look good on your mother, it won't look good on you.