More What I Wore

I had a Coke with my dinner and now I can't sleep. Actually, I couldn't sleep last night either and I was not caffeinated then, so I don't really know what's up. However, since I don't have the urge to veg in front of the TV, I thought that I would share a few more of my self portraits with you.



I got my first pair of Converse (turquoise) when I was 12 and felt very grown up on my family vacation to New Orleans. The maroon pair had belonged to my brother David, who actually was cool. On of them always came untied so I used a BowBiter of Animal from the Muppets. Like most kids, I had several pairs of black high tops over the course of four years in high school. Notice the detail on the yellow pair of the tongue that invariably got bunched up to one side.



This is a typical outfit for me in junior high and high school. Notice the tights worn under the ragged jeans and the T-shirt tucked in only in the front. I think we were hiding our butts. I also gave in and "pegged" my jeans so that the sillouette of my legs decreased as they went down. Not enough attention is paid to the fashion quirks of the early nineties. Too often they are simply seen as the tail end of the eighties, but since my entire high school life was spent in that style period, I'm actually dedicating quite a bit of time to preserving those images for posterity.



The first time that I was ever aware that boys were looking at me favorably was when I was wearing this outfit. The linen dress and cotton cardigan are from The Gap and I felt like Jackie O while wearing it. I wore the ensemble for a presentation that I was giving in one class and then wore it to my Poli-Sci 101 class. Dr. Montgomery, who had phenomenal style herself, complimented me, and that I could actually process. I was bewildered by the almost tangible appreciation of some of the male members of my class, but was simultaneously filled with an amazing sense of empowerment.



When I first began teaching, I revelled in looking like a teacher. Although I abhored both embroided apples and turtlenecks, I managed to exude the style associated with my profession to the point that more than one stranger (usually sales clerks) asked me out of the blue if I was, indeed, and English teacher. I liked jumpers and big beads. My ex-husband also liked this look which further explains my devotion to it. Otherwise, I can't explain my desire to look like a wealthy, artsy middle-aged suburban lady. The little head is what my student Tia's head looked like. She had so thoroughly examined and analyzed my style that when I returned from my long weekend in October (early in the school year) and told the kids that I had gotten married, she gasped and asked, "You didn't wear socks with your wedding dress, did you?"