Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Shoes, Clothes and all manner of attire

You'd think getting the dress would be the most difficult of wedding wardrobe needs. Indeed not, by my experience. I am, at this moment, sitting in a living room filled with over $4000 (totally to 12 pairs or so) worth of shoes from Zappos, Shoe.com and some other website, wondering which will be 1) the most useful in the future, 2) the most fun, 3) the most well priced for the amount of use, and 4) the most comfortable. This is, of course, absolutely absurd and hilarious because the only function they will serve on my wedding day is to make me tall enough so my dress doesn't drag on the ground and get me from place to place with relative ease. Nobody will be able to see them. And yet, here I am, something blue, something red, something gold, something silver, something sequined...... Oh my.

I got to thinking about clothes today and the significance in what you wear (not just on a wedding day, but in every day) and all it communicates about a person. I was actually thinking about this because I was feeling a wee bit uncomfortable in my own clothes -- not because they didn't fit right and not because they didn't look good. I was sufficiently satisfied with my clothes on both accounts. No, no, it was for quite different reasons.

You see, I was working today, but I wasn't the most productive (I'll be honest, I had an incredibly hard time focusing. My boss probably got a good 3 hours out my 8 that were worth paying me for.). As I went out on my lunch break to meet with the reception caterers, (this was about midday when I'd accomplished almost nothing), I felt like I was a bunch of pomp and circumstance.

Why would I feel bad? Because I know my clothes. They are, as I am a bit of a bargain shopper and a brand & fit snob, pretty nice and, at full price (though I usually get clothes on sale) almost always out of my price range and certainly out of my income bracket. But I get them anyway. And normally I don't mind this. In fact I very much approve and enjoy this. I feel that, especially in regards to my career and how I should present myself, it's a proper and well-fitted presentation. But not today. Today I felt like I didn't deserve to wear the clothes. I just felt like an overdresses, spoiled, entitled brat. Admittedly, as I thought this, I also thought of that sacreligious bit in Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, when God is talking to them through the parted clouds, telling them to stop groveling and how he hates it when people grovel and to stop apologizing, blah, blah, blah. I laugh at the absurdity of my guilty conscience on occasion. But it doesn't change the fact that I still feel a little guilty.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand. I was really crappy at taking care of business today. Thus, I didn't feel comfortable in my nice work clothes. However, different clothes are different in this regard. On my wedding day, I imagine I'll feel quite the part and up for wearing the wedding dress. But not on any other day, I think.Then I think of evening gowns --- evening gowns are just a lovely thing because all you have to do to feel up for and appropriate to one of those is to get done up and have somewhere nice to go. Sometimes not even that. But career attire -- you really got to have things together to wear it well. They're a tricky thing, clothes. Sometimes outsides really do match the insides. Of coures, I suppose some people don't have to match their clothes. Like those people who don't really care or pay attention to their clothes -- though I just can't imagine... How interesting. How do they do it? And then you have Hollywood. It's almost entirely pomp and circumstance there (in my humbe opinion). In any case, no matter whether other people do it or not, I like to match inside and out. Or at least to think that I do. :)

3 comments:

Wanderingfamilies said...

I cannot get over the idea of spending that kind of money on shoes - $4000!?!? I hope you are gonna return most of them...good luck with you decision making - I cannot wait to see what you decide on!

Sharona said...

Of course I'm returning most of them! All but one pair, of course. :) I realize I'm a bit extravagant. But not quite that extravagant.

dolly d. said...

Maybe that's why I always figure I'd never own a pants suit...or dress suit...or really any kind of suit.