Notes from a messy desk…
Do you love a reason to get all dressed up? Then welcome to December, where opportunities to glamourize abound. Stores, restaurants, and businesses display their tinsel and trimmings, so why not you and me? Heck, we can spiff up just for a walk to the mailbox and blame it on the holiday season. Even the flyers awaiting our mittened hands are colourful and celebratory.
Fashionista friends tell me sequins and velour are big this year. Ooh, sparkly! Mmm, velvety! Visions of Christmas parties at the community hall and New Years Eve soirees in private homes are dancing through my head. For a minute or two, that is. Having done velour and sequins in a younger life, my excitement doesn’t last.
I cannot tell a lie; effortless elegance is not my default setting. Does the dress-up muscle weaken with time, I wonder? Begin to atrophy from lack of use? Some of us (okay, me) gravitate to our favourite jeans and sweaters because (a) they feel comfortable, (b) they’re still perfectly good, and (c) shopping stopped being fun around the time Sears closed its doors and Amazon began bulldozing the internet jungle.
Besides, the world seems to have grown increasingly casual when it comes to clothes. I blame stretchy fabrics. Pants and leggings are just too darned accommodating, whatever your shape, and machine knitted tops are attractively cheap to produce. Given casual Fridays, working from home, and video calls from the neck up, why bother with classy clothes? Does your computer or cellphone care how you look while shopping, banking, or paying bills online? Nope and nope.
At one time, dressing to do business was its own serious business. Blue jeans were seldom seen in Prince Albert’s banks and offices. Dresses meant synthetic hose with shoes year round, not bare feet and flip flops. In inclement weather, gentlemen wore toe rubbers to protect their polished leather footwear. Clothes maintenance took more work then, too. The ironing alone – yikes!
Memories of helping Mom remove frozen long johns and other assorted garments from the clothesline during winter have me feeling like quite the lazybones. I mean, how much effort would it take to spruce up a bit in honour of the season? No need to attempt 12 days of partridges and pear trees, or 5 golden rings, although one or two adorning ears or fingers might be nice.
My own dear mother rocked various vintage aprons at Christmas. My sister’s collection of holiday brooches is second to none. Dad, bless his heart, happily wore whatever shirts he was gifted – the better to christen with fireworks falling from roll-your-own cigarettes. But I digress.
A funny thing happens when you stand in front of a full length mirror wearing a jazzy blouse, fashionable pants, a bejewelled necklace and one or two – or possibly five – golden bangles jingle-jangling at your wrist. You start to feel sort of, well… festive. Like December is here.
What’s your holiday style? Elegant? Matchy-matchy? Plaid fabulous? Cowboy bling? Elf-is Presley necktie? (I just made that one up). Bring ‘em on! Go ahead, be that flowery flowy aunt, that uncle in fancy cowboy boots, the brother wearing a sweater so ugly it’s spectacular. Tis the season! Because if you can’t flaunt the fun and fancy in December, when can you?
Merry Clothes-mas!
Lorna Blakeney is an avid writer who enjoys photography, history, travel, and genealogy. She was born and raised in Prince Albert, earned a B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan, likes to walk, and loves coffee shops. Her column appears the first Friday of the month.
