I'm back in New Hampshire at last, after what seems like a long time abroad. My first clothes related feeling has been that, yes, I have a lot of clothes, now that I have my closets and dresser to dig into once again. My second clothes related feeling has been that I can live out of a suitcase, with the option to buy a few new much needed clothes, and all these accumulated garments seem so old and boring.
(Mirror made out of little discarded objects; a photo of my mother taken in Central Park around 1970)
Since it's winter, sweaters are an obvious priority. Why are all my sweaters monochrome? Perhaps because, as I perused a couple of stores in Hanover today, American sweaters are monochrome (or quaintly folksy-Norwegian). Why do Americans dress so boring? (boringly...) What's happened? Why do I want to throw away all my clothes and start afresh? A little voice reminds me that I have been living out of a suitcase for nine months, and in France no less.
Fortunately, daughter Clara has been home from hip/cool/extremely sartorial/bohemian New York City, and is keeping the spirit of original but used alive and well. Today she came home from Revolution in White River Junction wearing this Anna Karenina inspired coat.
She calls the faux blue fur "aggressively artificial." I tell her she should write for a pastiche of a mail-order catalogue... Meanwhile interesting, colourful patterned vintage coats floating around cities everywhere (I see them in other people's blog posts) make winter exciting.
