Colors in Cambridge MA

 

                                                                  Outside Darwin Ltd

I just spent a mid-November night in Cambridge Massachusetts where the weather was still perfect for brisk walking between the Harvard end and the MIT end of the city. Thanks to Google maps, I headed to "The Garment District," a warehouse space filled with used clothes and costumes. 

I hoped to find a warm coat with lots of buttons and big pockets (mentioned in the previous blog entry) and/or an interesting cardigan sweater. I found neither, but I did find a Diane von Furstenberg silk dress (that I will photograph later) that fit perfectly. I don't need this dress, but I know that I can throw it in a suitcase because it weighs nothing, and I can layer it (it's rather sheer, so it will need something underneath it). 

My walk around the residential streets of Cambridge was delightful. I picked up a Macha latte, oh how hip, at one of the three Darwin Ltds (I looked it up). The coffee smelled so good as I approached the entrance. 

I loved the three color scheme in the bathroom. I like taking pictures of cool bathrooms. Cambridge is an expensive place to live, no doubt, but it remains a very liveable city, walkable and bikeable, with loads of front gardens, mature trees and colorful houses. 

Saturated in New York City

 

Costumes for sale at Buffalo Exchange on Broadway

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Glasgow, part II

As the Glasgow piece of my two week journey in the UK is about to come an end, I look forward and realise that I should probably think about the COVID rules for returning to the US, a week from now. 

Again, reading through reams of web pages about rules and regulations, trying to make sense of it all, chatting with my Manchester friend, who will be returning from France and has to schedule COVID tests too, and realising that COVID tests returning to the UK are different from COVID tests returning to the US. 

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What has happened to knowledge?  As we spend more and more time on the web, searching for stuff, are we becoming dumber and dumber? 

We spend more time checking off the right boxes, and less time letting our minds wander and imagine. 

I spent 1 £ on a book just the other day, as opposed to 39 £ for the returning COVID test. These are the times that we are living in. 

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On the positive side, I wandered into three used bookstores, all located in the vicinity of the university. Caledonia books, on Great Western Road, has a deep selection of Scottish literature. Thistle Books, in a little alley behind Otago Road, is actually two bookstores. One is specialised in music, including tons of sheet music, while the other has quite the detective novel selection. 

Thistle Books

And then there is Voltaire and Rousseau, also off of Otago. Be prepared for piles of books stacked high against bookcases also filled with books. The cat seems untroubled by the clutter. 

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I finally "connected" sections of Great Western, as I approached it from the West after having walked it from the East. That is how I discovered yet one more vintage store which had a really nice selection of all kinds of clothes including the classic plaid wool scarf. 

Glasgow has much to offer as cities go. It likes to preserve its old signs, and to a certain extent, an old way of life. Pubs have live music in the middle of the afternoon. There are still small specialised shops selling fish and records. And my flat has a drying rack on a pulley, quite handy, and those high ceilings make it possible to keep the drying laundry out of the way. 

Glasgow in September

 

After much preparation, my first trip outside the US borders has happened. To the UK to visit my daughter and her boyfriend who have been living in Glasgow for a few years. The city is enchanting, the people are extremely friendly and cheerful, this despite a rather intense series of lockdowns, not to mention the gloomy weather that is a permanent fixture. 

The West End has lots of leafy streets and a few alleyways that look like they could be in a village, not in the middle of a sprawling city. 

Naturally, charity shops pull me in like giant magnets. I haven't found anything that called out to me quite yet, mainly because it's still early in my visit. I am learning that there are charity shops (in very large numbers),  there are vintage stores (mainly focusing on the 1980s and 90s), and a few consignments stores (which I have yet to set foot in). 

Great Western Avenue. North of the University of Glasgow campus, lively on a Sunday. 

        Heading to the Barras Market on the subway, a circle line that is simplicity itself, with the Inner line and the Outer line, one going clockwise, the other, well, counterclockwise. On my ride to St Enoch, I couldn't help but notice that the car was filled with humans of all sizes wearing the exact same tee-shirt, the soccer jersey for the Celtic team, as there was a game on the south side of town. 

The Barras market was a bit disappointing. I had seen it on the tv series "Lovesick," and thought it was going to be rich with treasures. Instead it was mostly hodgepodge stacks of clothing and old housewares, displayed in unattractive ways. Glasgow is the city of designer and architect Charles Rennie Macintosh, and one does find a few of his designs at the market. I did pick up a couple of mismatched plates for my daughter. Not sure if she'll like them, but, as they say, it's the thought that counts. 

TV worth watching?

 I just finished watching the seven season, 13 episodes per season, 40 minutes per episode series titled "Offspring" (from Australia, on Netflix) followed by the much much shorter three episode series titled "The Pursuit of Love" on Amazon. The former features a main character named Nina Proudman, an obstetrician in Melbourne, Australia, and her large, chaotic family, set in the last decade. The latter features two friends' friendship, loosely based on the Mitford sisters, set in the first half of the twentieth century. Both paid close attention to the clothes worn by the various characters. 

I really liked what Dr. Proudman wore, especially because of the contrast between her profession and her bohemian, casual chic. It turns out that female viewers are excited enough about her outfits to search for them in stores and online. I wouldn't go that far. I would simply search in my closet. 

The series itself was exhausting. At times it felt like a telenovella, to the point where, while watching, I started sewing plastic bags into roses onto a prom dress I had found for $12 at the local thrift store as an art project. (Why I am sewing plastic bags on a dress will be explained later). The funky Proudman family is very open minded about relationships, but the series hardly explored alternative relationships. Neither did it introduce minorities as major characters, aside from one very assimilated midwife named Cherie, a native Australian who was adopted by white fundamentalist Christians. All and all, the series seemed very conventional in its depiction of life in Melbourne, with loads of scenes taking place in bars, cafes and upscale restaurants. I was entertained, I loved the characters, I was touched by the tragedies. But ultimately, the Australian world that was painted in that series seemed very conservative and white. 

As for the Mitford fictionalization, Emily Mortimer, who both wrote the series and stars in it, creates an English historical drama that sucks the viewer in with the fabulous acting, beautiful home interiors and of course, the elaborate costumes. I actually looked closely at my screen when certain patterns intrigued me. The plot wasn't bad either. I loved the musical score especially, a modern soundtrack that worked effectively with the historical setting because of the somewhat feminist messaging. 

As for the dress project, here it is in its middle stage. I hope to display a prom ghost in my front yard on Halloween. Same message: we consume too much plastic. When are we going to do something about it? 

hohum

 

Hohum. It could stand for hot and humid, the weather these last few days. It could stand for the way I've been feeling with the rise in cases due to a. people not getting vaccinated and b. the rise of the delta variant. 

It could be how I felt going to the Revolution sidewalk sale, actually held inside an old five and dime store that has been empty for years, and has been used for quirky pop-ups now and again. 

I was uncertain as to whether I could attend the sidewalk sale, and in the end I did, mostly because my studio is just down the street (it's air conditioned and I've been sewing there while watching an endless Australian telenovella). 

I showed up to the sale about fifteen minutes after it had opened its doors, and, much to my surprise, it was already packed. People had lined up outside before it opened, and I assumed that people wouldn't, with COVID and all that. But people did. Being there alone, without friends or my daughters changed the experience for me. I ended up searching for jeans for one of my partner's sons, it was quiet on the jeans table, after having looked through what was left in the women's section. 

I did buy a dressy dress, which will be adorned with more of the plastic flowers I'm making out of orange newspaper delivery bags. That project is very time consuming, which is a good thing right now, to take my mind off of the stress of waiting out more scary statistics. (will post photos from sewing project at a later date). 

Another activity that keeps me focused entails going back to the drawing of the "Daily Shit Show." Essentially it's taking the news headlines verbatim, and just letting them speak volumes for the times we're living in. 

Below is just one more example.

Summer Reading

 I just finished reading Alexandra Shulman's memoir of her years as Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue titled Clothes and Other Things that Matter. I wanted to read what others had written on the topic of clothes, and Shulman's book seemed to overlap in so many ways with my own interests in the topic. Even the title, which indeed announces a primary interest in clothes, but then takes off in many other directions, including used clothes, career choices, relationships, and some family history, overlaps with my tentative title for a book I'm trying to write (based on this blog) in which I want to expand on used clothes but also on material culture more generally. 

Anyway. I finally relaxed on the back porch with the book, and my cat as loyal companion. I also wore some used clothes: an older acquisition (the pink Talbot's blouse) and a new one (a pair of truly vintage Liz Claiborne linen shorts). 

I found the shorts on that recent trip to Montpelier, VT. They're high waisted and have belt loops (here I go providing details about the clothing, after reading Shulman: I wonder, what's taken me so long?), and they're very comfortable, as shorts should be. So, to continue "à la Shulman," analyzing clothing one type of garment at a time, shorts (which she doesn't write about actually, her chapters are themed around specific garments and accessories) have been a problem for me for years. There was a time when I couldn't find comfortable women's shorts, mainly because they were very tight at the waist, only to open up too much at the hips and buttocks area. I have often bought men's shorts which are also longer down the leg. At long last, designers are making shorts for women that are comfortable and stylish. I found a light blue pair at COS with an elasticized waist and nice deep pockets and paid full price for them. They're perfect on a very hot day, walking around a sultry city (like Boston, a few weeks back). And of course, I now have these vintage linen shorts. 

Back to the Shulman book and some insights from her: I love how she makes the reader think about their favorite dress, coat or pair of shoes. In thinking about these favorites, I realized that I don't own my favorite coat (yet) because it's an expensive fantasy: a long, belted, black or navy blue or grey cashmere, buttoned piece. Max Mara makes one, and the moment I find one in a vintage store at a reasonable price, I will acquire it. As for my favorite dress, I think that I do own it, I just haven't worn it yet. It's an Eileen Fisher silk shift, green and navy blue print, that is "dry clean only," which is why...I haven't worn it yet. I am also waiting for the special occasion to wear it (maybe a retirement dinner or a wedding). It's very flattering, and makes me feel confident when I wear it. (Shulman explains the role clothes play in building confidence). As for the shoes. That's a tough one. My first pair of fancy shoes were Ferragamos that my father bought with me as consolation for not going to ski camp (I had gotten the flu). They were bone colored T strapped mary janes with a one inch heel. I don't have them any more, I don't remember wearing them and what happened to them, it's very odd. 

As for my current shoe collection, I love the Birkenstocks I wear for gardening, a blue metallic pair that I found on a discount shoe web site. If I had to choose one pair of shoes in a house fire, I guess it would have to be those Birkenstocks. I also love a pair of winter boots that I also found on an online web site, lace-ups, waterproof, resemble old-fashioned men's spats. 

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The overlap between Shulman and myself is very limited. Besides our ages, she is slightly older than I am, hence we both entered the work force in the 1980s, her career and mine are worlds apart. But that doesn't mean that we don't overlap in our thinking about clothes. Her insights on her first "suit" reminded me that a jacket and matching skirt were de rigueur for certain mid-level and high level jobs back in the 1980s. Maternity clothes in the 1990s (awful, not that the current tight tube look is much of an improvement) reminded me of my quest for something presentable and comfortable (I remember a jumpsuit made out of sweatshirt fabric). Where we find inspiration for our dressing style varies from person to person, but we look in the same places: celebrities, rich people, street wear if you're young, a beautiful teenager back in the day...

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I'll close on an idea that I developed in my newest graphic novel (Empty Nesting II) regarding self-care. I buy used coats -- I am a coat "rescuer" and one time, when I wasn't feeling well, I imagined that all my coats were piled on top of me to keep me warm and feeling "enveloped." Shulman also writes about a coat -- a trench coat in this case -- that gives her a sense of security. 

Needless to say, her book was a fun read, and I wish we could all share our reactions including our own favorite ... coat, dress, shoes...shorts. What is your favorite garment and why?