Like so many others, I am one of those people who feels like I’m coming to life when spring begins its flirtation with us. I feel like I’m living the moment in The Wizard of Oz movie turns from black and white to color. I feel energetic…and creative.
Due to this springtime energy, and having lost just enough weight that some dresses that I had cut out *cough* a couple years ago now fit and that I feel confident that I can sew from the collection of patterns that I have amassed over the years and be able to wear the results.
Enter the coveralls. While I probably should call them Mercer, I think I want to call the Sunset.
I knew that I would be attending a Penny Stamps talk– Lisa Hanawalt in conversation with Samantha Irby, and I knew that these pink and green desert coveralls would be perfect. You see, both of these artists are characters in my household. My husband and I devoured Tuca and Bertie and we’ve listened to Samantha Irby audio books on road trips. The fabric reminded me both of the colorful worlds that Lisa Hanawalt animates, and also of a get up that I could imagine Samantha Irby describing in her emails where she recaps Judge Mathis’s show.
While people who see me often know that have curated a somewhat whimsical wardrobe, usually it’s in the form of a dress, skirt or top. Coveralls felt like a different kind of choice. From neck to ankles, wrist to wrist, I would be wearing a vibrant outfit with illustrated cacti some of which are 10 inches tall. I was very curious about what the experience of wearing this outfit would be.
Turns out, it wasn’t noteworthy at all.
At about 9:20 that morning, I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up a breakfast burrito, and someone stopped me to tell me that I was wearing a fun outfit. Aside from my ever-humbling kindergartner telling me that he did not like my clothes, nothing.
When I was dating my husband, after we had taken a day trip to Grand Rapids to check out the art museum and some fun restaurants, he told me that he had never been with someone whose clothing got as many comments as mine do.
But when I was wearing Sunset, things were very quiet. From my (opinionated) son’s elementary school, to work, to the talk, it seems that this outfit just meshed with everyone else’s.
Except it didn’t. At the talk, I was stricken by the lack of color among the others in the theater, and experience that I had at a different event where I had expected everyone to dress from the most colorful corners of their closets.
But more importantly, the outfit didn’t fade into the background for me! I love these coveralls. I took my time with the construction and it just makes me happy. When it catches my eye, I smile or even laugh.
When my younger son was in preschool, one of his little classmates was often interested in my outfits. One day, I wore a dress totally expecting that she was going to be all about it. It was inspired by Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I walked into that classroom of under-fives who I know had read this book several times and nothing! That made for a fun story, but also a reminder that really I want to be dressing for myself.
These coveralls underlined that thought.
Though I DO think that they are the perfect thing to wear to an event this weekend….