Thursday, March 14, 2013

the girl on the train

Have you ever had that moment where you look at someone and think, wow, i know you....? And it's not because you actually really do know them, but rather there's something about the person that reminds you of yourself, whether in look or action or some other (in)tangible way. That happened to me the other morning on the train with the girl (yes, girl) in the middle of the above photo. (She, and the two ladies on either side of her, actually do have faces, but I pixeled them out because it felt wrong to drop someone's photo up here without them having a choice in the matter. Although in this day and age of Google map streetview drive-bys grabbing personal information, I'm sure this would score pretty low on the privacy invasion meter.)

So she caught my attention because I recognized in her a quirky fashion sense that telegraphed to me the message: Yeah, I'm wearing a bright blue coat, bright red polka-dot fingerless gloves, a skirt and combat boots with socks, and I'm also reading an actual book made of paper-stuff that I'm completely smitten by. It struck me that she was fully confident in her sartorial choice, knowing that she would stand out among the Gap-style that is the generally dominant look, i find. Though I must say that the ladies on either side of her were no slouches in style, but she had a different air about her altogether.

I've been that girl whose clothing has been chosen for reasons of standing out in a certain way, and sometimes it works really well and equally as many times I think it's gone somehow wrong, yet I always felt confident enough about myself to keep on working that part of me. But looking at this girl on the train, it occurred to me that I was no doubt beyond the years that wearing combat boots with socks and a skirt could really work for me. And that bummed me out. I began to wonder if there was in fact a time when dressing age-appropriate is a thing to be paid attention to. Though my preference is to wholly ignore that dictum, I do squirm to think that i might be glanced at in a way that says Oh no...you shouldn't have. really. shouldn't. have. And I'm not sure I know anymore what I really look like. As if I see myself reflected in a mirror colored by what I want to see. I actually like what I see, but sometimes when I look at pictures I'm a bit startled. I wonder when did that thing with my chin start happening? What's up with my hands? In fact, lately I've been seeing photos of people I worked with or knew back in my early career days (Oh, Facebook, why are you so nostalgic? and relentless?) and I'm actually surprised by how the years have molded them, then I remember they've had their way with me as well.

So the girl on the train! she's become a great reminder of how much i love New York for letting me be a voyeur and also for being a catalyst to take a stroll down the catwalk of my past to remember my skirt&combatBoot days as a rock chick (which honestly I still yearn toward almost every day), the moment when I wore the lace wrap-around skirt that really was way too short and see-through to be worn in daylight, the ongoing love affair I had with the pumpkin-orange, pleather, snap-up-the-front skirt, which finally fell apart from wear&tear and lack of actual cleaning, since I never knew how to wash it properly, or the lederhosen I got from the vintage store and wore with knee-high biker boots. what? or the suit bought in the boys department that made me look like a cross between a deranged member of the band Madness and a 10-year-old whose had a rapid growth spurt but hasn't yet adjusted the wardrobe. All these things were either a success or a disaster, but they were fun. And I still like figuring out how to work some style into the mix, so, who knows, down the line in the future, if you see a gray-haired lady wearing combat boots, knee socks and a tartan dress, with a bright-blue pleather jacket on top, please know that in that moment, my mirror reflected back: Why not!?

2 comments:

  1. What's happened since the girl on the train?????

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  2. Well... apparently she got off this particular train and renamed herself Alex....

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