Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Summer Line Up

I like Gwyneth Paltrow the best. She's down to earth. No, Kate Winslett, she's my favorite. She's down to earth. No, maybe Julia Roberts. She's pretty down to earth lately...
Back to Gwyneth. She's the one who gave me this idea. Or rather, put a label on the thing I already do...a uniform. Apparently, she's got her winter and her summer uniform. A week's worth of leggings and tunics for winter, a few dresses for summer. When I read this (thank you, Vogue) I realized I have a uniform too. Here it is for this summer.
Four dresses.


One pair of shoes.



One pair of earrings. One hair clip.



My summer uniform.

There's a lot I should be thinking about when I get dressed every day. Like what color will make my pasty skin look less pasty. Like what I can wear both to the office today and then to happy hour tonight. Like how I can best disguise my growing waistline (from butter, not a baby, mom). But all of these considerations somehow, recently, are obsolete. How I'm lookin' is one of the last things I'm thinking about.
When did this happen? Have I lost motivation to be fashionably imaginative since I'm no longer trying to snag a man? Please say no. Even if it's true. Please say it's because I'm thinking world historical thoughts that leave no room for superfluities. Yeah, that's not it. No, that's definitely not it.
To be perfectly honest I spend 98.2% of my limited brain power thinking about the weather. The weather dictates what I cook, my mood, whether I will hold my husband's hand, and who my favorite Beatle is. OK, not the last one. But... have I mentioned that its blitheringly, I wanna die, if-my-air-conditioner-breaks-I-will-die hot here? See, in preparation for last summer, my first in this muggy swamp, I ignorantly collected a variety of fashionable summery things, including things that cling to the body. Boy was that a mistake. Boy have I learned. Those dresses up there? They were chosen solely because they only make contact with my skin at those skinny straps. The fabric? It's so light I can barely feel it. The colors? Aside from the yellow (this year's weakness) the dark colors will not show swea, er, perspiration which there is just a bit of around here. The price? Around $13 each because by the end of the summer they will have seen their day and they will be disposed of. The fact that the billowy style disguises my growing waistline (butter) is a nice little bonus.
So yes, before you ask, I was wearing this same thing last time you saw me. And it won't be the last time you see it.

4 comments:

meg said...

Reading this makes me think, "I'm so happy I ran across your blog." it's posts like these that humanize us in such tangible ways...I'm loving it.

Valerie said...

Ditto to what Meg said. And Ditto to what you said about the dresses and the heat.

Mm said...

I'm sorry to give you a history lesson in public, but the "uniform" is at least two generations older than Gwyneth. Your grandmother used (I assumed coined) the term. Hers is, as you know, a sweatshirt. My uniform is what ever I am wearing(and have been for multiple days) and changes only after several days when it must risk getting lost in the laundry. OR, perhaps, if an event requires a
different "look" ... But the uniform comes right back if it is still clean. I have never figured out why, if a combination looks good, one would want to use brain power to re-select components the next day. If it isn't broken, why fix it? Well, maybe that isn't really my motivation... but we will save the psychoanalysis for another time.
Mm

Anonymous said...

So...who exactly is your favorite Beatle?