Seams and scenes…
Posted by bbc on 18 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: general
Walking down the street today, I happened to be following a young woman who was wearing a suit with the seams inside out. Not that she had her jacket on backwards, but that the suit was constructed so the external seams looked like unfinished internal seams. It was otherwise well-pressed and tailored and of a fashionable color – so this is a fashion statement, not a lack of clothing sense.
I grew up in a small town in the south, in the days when home economics was still a recommended, if not actually required, course for young ladies. We learned to sew and cook (allegedly although that remains to be proven) and would never have been allowed to declare a garment finished if it looked as if it were inside out. That would have been grounds for a failing grade.
I suspect this young woman knows nothing of seams and sewing, but she wants to look just a little different and this is a look that accomplishes it. I suppose it’s in the same vein as the pre-ripped blue jeans or the ones that have holes that look like wear damage artfully placed. It makes a statement about who you are and that you don’t necessarily follow the old standards. No polished shoes and standard suits – those don’t make the right statements for today.
I’m glad to live in a town that doesn’t seem to have a real dress standard. Sometimes the Portland casual look goes too far and it would be nice to see people in something other than shorts and tshirts at a concert or play. But I don’t really want to go back to the suits with silk blouses and little ties. Or the heels that went with them. Somewhere I still have a box full of those ties and scarves – perhaps they’ll come back, the way so many other fashions do. It was fun to wear them then – but these days I’m happy with my regular jeans and sweaters. No need to dress up more than that for most occasions. And so far no one is requiring that I have an inside-out suit or that my jeans have holes in them. On the whole I prefer the less drafty version.
My desk was behind this column.