How much time has to go by before you can look back at something you did and recognize that it was a little ridiculous?
It was sometime in the 90s that we took a good hard look at the 80s and realized just how awful shoulder pads and bangs hairsprayed so high they looked like little satellite dishes were. It took the British hundreds of years to stop wearing those silly wigs everywhere. (Though, that might have coincided with the improved treatment for syphilis…) On a personal level, it’s hard for me to look at pictures from high school without slapping my palm to my forehead and exclaiming What was I thinking?!?!?!
I always figured it was at least several years before you could really let yourself see how silly you’d been. So imagine my surprise when last week I discovered a much more recent occurrence for myself.
About two years ago I learned how to sew, and for a while it ate up all of my spare time. I got this great book, Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt by Megan Nicolay. It’s 108 things to do with old shirts. Stuff like cutting the collar and sleeves off, adding random drawstrings, and weaving scraps of other t-shirts into a decorative design up the seams.
Slicing and dicing t-shirts quickly became one of my favourite things to do, and I had several weird and wonderful designs that were staples in my wardrobe. I wore those suckers right up to the end of last summer, and then they went into a bag to make room for winter sweaters.
This bag came out of the closet recently, and I was horrified to see these cut up and desecrated t-shirts. Shirts I’d worn with pride as recently as six months ago! To work! Why did no one tell me how shabby they looked? WHY!?!?!?!
I don’t know what changed. Certainly not my sense of style. I still don’t have one of those. Maybe my sense of shame?
What I have learned from this is that not only can I not trust myself to pick out my clothes, I can’t trust anyone around me either. I could call out at least three people who I know saw how stupid those shirts were. Who probably went to the bathroom to shake out the cringe every time they saw me wearing one. To these people I say this: next time, use your words. TELL ME.
Lesson learned: T-shirts are not a particularly exciting article of clothing. However, going all Frankenstein on them does not make them better.
Photo Credits
William Gore by Christian Friedrich Zincke
“Generation T – 108 ways to transform a T-shirt” book cover
Recent Sarah Gignac Articles:
- Filmmaking 101 Part 6 - Shoot Day
- Filmmaking 101 Part 5 - Casting & Crew & Catering, Oh My!
- Filmmaking 101 Part 4 – The Pre-Production Dance Of Insanity
- Filmmaking 101 Part 3 – A Lesson In Passion and Partnerships
- Filmmaking 101 Part 2 — The Script
Sounds like these creations would have gone really well with the patchwork jeans you mentioned a while ago… 🙂
There is one thing you don’t realize about yourself Sarah …. you are one of these persons that can get away with wearing just about any “style”. The way you carry it makes it look like it is the bestest and latest and everyone should have one …. What is that about you?
I guess I just have great jeans.
Get it? Genes/jeans…oh my, do I ever crack myself up!