connect the dots

how do you choose what to wear? are garments always costumes, assuring that you will be taken by others as the role you wish to fill? there are those who suggest that every single item of clothing is a choice communicated, down to the last nuance, and a statement made, down to the last whisper.

me, i am driven by color. and cotton. and though i believe i have no consciousness of what is fashionable whatsoever, there remains something of great importance about it all.

i can remember the white empire-waisted sheath that i wore for high- school graduation. it had a black cummerbund with white polka dots. i was, and still am, quite delighted that i could find an enameled bracelet that was white with black polka dots to match.

several times here we've discussed the volumes of identity revealed in various cultures by hairdo, or costume, detail, or grand gesture. if it was true then, it must be true now. something as 'simple' as a woman's fingernails might immediately brand her as 'one of us' or not.

do you want it to be true for you? do you communicate through appearances consciously? might you be kidding yourself, telling a different story entirely than the one you believe you're telling? how is your identity spelled out by your clothes?

i have come to believe that identity, appearance, opinion are, for most of us, invisibly malleable -- we think what we think, wear what we wear, even know ourselves to be who we think we are... to fit into the group of our life. it could be dangerous not to.

to be born 'outside the box' changes the perception of this, but does not wholly negate its pull. we like to think we create ourselves out of free will, but if that were true best friends wouldn't dress alike, nobody would call to ask what to wear to the party.

that old song, 'you've got to be taught how to hate,' well, you've got to be taught everything else too. how can something so unimportant be the most important thing of all?

can't jump, either

i never noticed this consciously before, but it seems white people haven't had much in the way of bold, colorful pattern in their textiles (other than perhaps scandinavia?) until exposure to the fabrics from japan. at least the ones in the prints.

i'm not crazy about raoul dufy's paint- ings; grandma dee had a print of one over her sofa and that seemed just about right. but when i discovered his fabric design recently i loved them! while these are slipping towards the fauve/matisse-y era of western art, they wouldn't have happened at all without the required inspiration.

perhaps these were completed during his early years, while he worked in a museum, before he really found his painting style. but for me they are some of the most wonderful fabric designs of the era, and i'm glad he did at least these.

gakutei yashima lived from 1788 to 1868. he was also a poet and often included his poems in his paintings.