Stories are all around us. We carry our own with us, and get to be keepers of other people's stories. Over the last week alone I have cried over love stories, commiserated with friends over their troubles, and laughed out loud reading Jenny Lawson's extraordinarily funny and important book Furiously Happy.
Why important? Because it's "A funny book about horrible things", i.e. mental illness. It is so, so good. Totally wacky of course, but in the best way possible. Read it. Read it now.
Anyway.
There is a story inside me that I want to share with you. One that I haven't told yet.
It's about a girl. A girl who went through a traumatic period in her life: The period of the tapered pants. Baggy in the waist and thigh, slim below the knee, it's a style that looks good on no-one.
Yet, she thought they looked good because she was young and dumb and didn't know any better. Bless her heart and cluelessness. For years she wore those awful pants, often paired with turtleneck sweaters tucked into the pants for more volume in the belly area.
It was a dark time.
Until finally, in the 14th year of her life, her friend had a genius idea. She made a 5-inch cut along the inside seam on the bottom of her tapered pants, thus creating a make-shift flare.
Instantly the pants looked a hundred times better, balancing the bagginess of the thighs with a somewhat matching flare.
The girl ran home and took the scissors to all her pants, euphoric at this wonderful revelation.
But that was only the beginning.
As if the fashion gods wanted to reward her efforts, boot-cut and flared pants started to appear in the stores. They were the answer to every pear-shaped girl's cry for a flattering piece of clothing.
The girl was happy. For years she wore the slimming and flattering pants, first paired with Doc Martens, later with heels to create the illusion of longer legs.
However, nothing lasts forever.
The girl will never forget her shock and dismay when she was sitting in post-secondary biology class in her 27th year, clad in her beloved boot-cuts, surrounded by mostly younger, and more fashion-forward girls. One of them wore a variation of the dreaded tapered pants! Were they haunting her?
On closer inspection the girl had to admit that they weren't exactly tapered: They were slim throughout, fitting like a second skin. A skin that was, in this instance, quite tight, creating a sausage-like appearance. Exactly what was wrong with this shape!
It didn't look good on anybody but the slimmest of bodies, preferably with no hips and butt, now did it?
She hoped beyond hope that this was just the mistake of one person, and not a fashion movement.
But in her heart she knew the truth: The balanced pants days were over.
The skinny jeans arrived with a vengeance. She tried to ignore them in the beginning, but it was hopeless - they grew on her. She bought her first pair, and liked it. Not only were they much more comfortable than they looked (2% elastane work better than magic), but did they actually - look good? She didn't know if it was clever brainwashing from the media, a trick of her eyes, or reality, but she didn't care. She started to love them.
However, she never forgot about her first true love, the flared jeans. Throughout the skinny years, she kept a few pairs tucked away in her closet, just in case. "Everything in fashion comes back eventually", the eternal optimist inside her told her, and she clung to that.
And then, it happened. After many, many years of keeping them hidden away, they finally get to see the light of day again!
Ladies, hold on to your bell bottoms: The flare is back!!!!
Why important? Because it's "A funny book about horrible things", i.e. mental illness. It is so, so good. Totally wacky of course, but in the best way possible. Read it. Read it now.
Anyway.
There is a story inside me that I want to share with you. One that I haven't told yet.
It's about a girl. A girl who went through a traumatic period in her life: The period of the tapered pants. Baggy in the waist and thigh, slim below the knee, it's a style that looks good on no-one.
Yet, she thought they looked good because she was young and dumb and didn't know any better. Bless her heart and cluelessness. For years she wore those awful pants, often paired with turtleneck sweaters tucked into the pants for more volume in the belly area.
It was a dark time.
Until finally, in the 14th year of her life, her friend had a genius idea. She made a 5-inch cut along the inside seam on the bottom of her tapered pants, thus creating a make-shift flare.
Instantly the pants looked a hundred times better, balancing the bagginess of the thighs with a somewhat matching flare.
The girl ran home and took the scissors to all her pants, euphoric at this wonderful revelation.
But that was only the beginning.
As if the fashion gods wanted to reward her efforts, boot-cut and flared pants started to appear in the stores. They were the answer to every pear-shaped girl's cry for a flattering piece of clothing.
The girl was happy. For years she wore the slimming and flattering pants, first paired with Doc Martens, later with heels to create the illusion of longer legs.
However, nothing lasts forever.
The girl will never forget her shock and dismay when she was sitting in post-secondary biology class in her 27th year, clad in her beloved boot-cuts, surrounded by mostly younger, and more fashion-forward girls. One of them wore a variation of the dreaded tapered pants! Were they haunting her?
On closer inspection the girl had to admit that they weren't exactly tapered: They were slim throughout, fitting like a second skin. A skin that was, in this instance, quite tight, creating a sausage-like appearance. Exactly what was wrong with this shape!
It didn't look good on anybody but the slimmest of bodies, preferably with no hips and butt, now did it?
She hoped beyond hope that this was just the mistake of one person, and not a fashion movement.
But in her heart she knew the truth: The balanced pants days were over.
The skinny jeans arrived with a vengeance. She tried to ignore them in the beginning, but it was hopeless - they grew on her. She bought her first pair, and liked it. Not only were they much more comfortable than they looked (2% elastane work better than magic), but did they actually - look good? She didn't know if it was clever brainwashing from the media, a trick of her eyes, or reality, but she didn't care. She started to love them.
However, she never forgot about her first true love, the flared jeans. Throughout the skinny years, she kept a few pairs tucked away in her closet, just in case. "Everything in fashion comes back eventually", the eternal optimist inside her told her, and she clung to that.
And then, it happened. After many, many years of keeping them hidden away, they finally get to see the light of day again!
Ladies, hold on to your bell bottoms: The flare is back!!!!
I will always like skinnies, but flares are my soul mates.
Are you as happy as I am about the return of the flared jeans?
Linking up with Fashion Should Be Fun, Passion 4 Fashion and Jaymie Ashcraft
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