Thursday, September 29, 2005

The Vol Abroad issues fashion edicts

Someone I know has just bought some new shoes. Except they weren't really new shoes, they were exact replacements of her current shoes, which are white and which she was wearing yesterday.

This certain someone needs to be shown a calendar, with Labor Day circled in red and the words written in: "This is your last day to wear white shoes"

Somehow in Britain, the rule about white shoes being worn only between Memorial Day and Labor Day hasn't caught on. This may be because they don't have Memorial Day and Labor Day here, but there are equivalent holidays - the May Bank Holiday and the August Bank Holiday (so named Bank Holiday because the banks were/are closed). The May Bank Holiday is the exact same weekend as Memorial Day and the August one is the weekend before Labor Day Weekend. And because we're in a colder clime, the August Bank Holiday seems like a good cut-off point for white shoe wearing.

Where is Serial Mom when we need her?

And another thing - me and the Texan were talking about this Sunday and then I had the same conversation about this with another colleague this week - what's up with the underwear showing thing? Here in London anyway, it seems to be perfectly acceptable to wear any old color brassiere underneath any old shirt.

Wearing a blue crochet top that shows skin? Perfectly acceptable to wear your hootchie-mama red bra underneath it. Wearing a translucent white blouse, go on, wear your hot purple bra so we all know you have a hot purple bra.

Underwear visible above the waist line? Hey, that's ok, too.

When I was growing up, we worried about our slip being revealed beneath the hem of our Sunday best. Now, nobody seems to wear slips anymore, even beneath the lightest, unlined skirts. And while that may not (or may) reveal the color of your underwear, we can see exactly what kind of underwear you are wearing. Hey, but that's ok, how else would we know that thong underwear is de rigeur?

No. No. No. It's not OK. No white shoes after Labor Day, no visible colored bras, and no I do not want to see your ass cheeks through your clothes cunningly framed by your flossy underpants.

PS. I'd like to point out that if my underwear is ever visible, it's because I'm a careless dresser, not because I'm making a fashion statement.

1 comment:

genderist said...

White shoes after Labor Day: one of the top reasons I became a nurse.