Is there something in your closet that you would not be caught dead wearing out in public? This has become a bad habit of mine during the pandemic. Here’s a list of some of the items I have purchased but never worn in public: A cardigan that looks like a cartoon drawing. A polo shirt with not the traditional one neck hole, but three. A grass-green turtleneck that a movie extra from “The Fifth Element” would wear. A star-spangled sequined vest. I love these garments but wearing them out of the house is another thing.
Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary in 1925, "My love of clothes interests me profoundly. Only it is not love; And what it is I must discover.” She called this complex with clothes her “frock consciousness,” an awareness that our perception of ourselves is affected by the realization that others perceive us. Woolf understood that clothes were not merely a frivolity, but a part of being human.
I share Woolf’s fascination with clothing. Not just the clothes themselves, but what the act of putting on clothes does to us. Clothes are the border between our public and private selves, what we want to reveal to the world, and what we choose to conceal. Lately for me, it’s been more concealing than revealing. I’m reminded of Avery Trufelman’s advice in this week’s TTBOOK show “If Your Clothes Could Talk.” She says to wear something that scares you. Because once you wear the thing that scares you, you’re a step closer to dressing fearlessly.
–Angelo