Fashion (Beep Beep)

Several years ago, a woman I worked with cleaned out her closet and filled her car trunk with things for Goodwill. Many of the items were brand new, and several were quite expensive - she was an older woman, and fairly well-to-do. Before she dropped the whole trunkload off, she invited her coworkers down to the parking lot to go through the clothes and pick out anything that caught their eye.

Well, her taste and mine did not, unsurprisingly, coincide in any particular. She was older, of the moneyed-socialite-matronly type, and I am - hell, I probably don't have to tell my readers what I am. I was a lot younger then, too.

But there was something in her trunk I absolutely had to have.

I have never worn it. It's not the sort of thing I think any sane human being would possibly wear (not that I have any business laying claim to sanity). But oh. Oh. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

The outfit was apparently meant to be worn while traveling. The cotton print top features an exuberantly-, perhaps even aggressively-, colored print of swimsuits and suitcases, binoculars and cameras, tennis rackets and beach towels on a bright royal blue background. The cuffs and lapels are taxicab yellow with bright blue, green and red pinstripes. No detail was neglected: the buttons are tiny brass steering wheels.

The matching trousers are the same shade of royal blue as the top, with the same brilliantly-colored pinstripes as the cuffs and lapels of the top.

But the most uplifting, heartbreaking, maddening, breathtaking thing about this outfit is that, flawlessly made as it is, it has no label, no serging, no industrial machine finishing whatsoever. This was sold in no store. Someone made this. Perhaps the woman from whom I got it; or perhaps it was lovingly gifted to her by someone else - a person of infinite patience and skill, a person who wouldn't know good taste if it walked up to her, said "Hey baby, I'm David Bowie" and stuck its tongue down her throat.

Robbie wants me to wear it to work. I hope you will all understand that I can't. I feel it would be disrespectful to the sacred spirit of the suit.