I used to think that whimsical embroidery was an embellishment of the school librarian. You know, the stern but kind lady with drawn-on eyebrows (I should talk), a pack of sugar-free Trident in her pocket, tissues up her sleeve, and a collection of tapestry purses her grandkids bought her at the National Geographic gift shop? That was the box I had put things like fun embroidered pretzels on button-up shirts.
Maybe it deserves to live in that box. There is nothing wrong with the librarian in my mind’s eye (or, more aptly, in my actual memory). She is purposeful, has an appreciation of oatmeal raisin cookies, reminisces about the Dewey Decimal System – don’t we all – and writes her book suggestions in beautiful Palmer cursive. She can read people (dare I say, like a book? That would be a disappointing pun, so we’ll leave it in parenthesis), knows which student prefers what type of literature and the best websites to get you access to online articles for your final paper.
And the woman can LAUGH. I know because we can all hear her cackling from the teachers’ lounge as she washes out the casserole dish she brought to the staff potluck. She smiles when the head of the English department asks her about her tapestry purses. There is joy there.
I am beginning to love this member of the Greek Chorus I hold in my mind, a person who is really an amalgam of three different librarians of my childhood. She sounds like she’s down to ride, no?
Know Thyself
If I learned anything in my twenties, it is that my baseline setting is to take myself Very Seriously. I wouldn’t ever want to be perceived as anything but respectable, or God forbid, silly. “Silliness” is for the unproductive, for the blissfully ignorant, for those who rely an the anxiety of others to ensure their general safety. It was, after all, a Silly Mindset that got all those lovely kids ripped off at the ill-fated Fyre Festival, wasn’t it? How dare they invest in their own joy. And look what it got them – twenty grand in the hole, for some.
I was confronted with the fact that I held extremist views on Silliness and Respectability, that the former was vapid and maybe even vain, and the latter was absolutely essential for survival. Finding a middle ground was just, well, silly.
Yikes. What a way to live.
Corrective Behavior
There are little things I do to correct this quality of regimented seriousness, because with experience and wisdom I learned that in order to thrive in this world there must be room for the Silly. I try things that I am terrible at, even better if in a public forum; I challenge my middle-school mentees to see who can fit the most cheese puffs in their mouth (I always win, my record is 27); and when I find a starched white collared shirt with tiny PRETZELS embroidered on it – salt and all – I challenge myself to wear it.
It is absolutely something our librarian would wear. It would be her Friday attire. She might wear it with pleated brown corduroy slacks and clogs, maybe with a turtleneck under it. She’d love the shit out of it.
It is not something that I, who routinely inflate my own ego with thoughts of how vital and worldly my opinion is (the only one that matters, isn’t it?), and have to talk myself down from any perceived slight, judgement, or possible error, would wear.
People might think it’s goofy.
And then I think, I just wrote a few hundred words about tiny embroidered pretzels that symbolize an entire world view. How silly, how marvelous.
The OOTD
I wore this to a friend’s clothing exchange in Point Richmond. It was storming that day, and the light was low in the apartment when Rodrigo took these photos. We were essentially shooting under water, so relentless was the rain that afternoon.
You better bet I used my boob tape on this guy (the shirt, not Rodrigo). Alcohol swab, slap the tape on, pat the fabric down, and you’re good to go.
Trending: Whimsical Embroidery
I touched on embroidery in the last post, and it’s something I’d like to carry through from last year into 2020. There is just something so fun, so wholesome, almost anti-fashion about it, isn’t there?
Well, it can’t be that anti-fashion, since we’ve seen our fair share of whimsical embroidery on the runways in recent years:
I hope you can find room for fun in the rest of your week!
love,
Stig.
