It’s the week before Labor Day. Twice in the previous two days I have taken note of a woman, blithely going about her business, dressed completely in black from the neck down including black backpack purse and flowy, ankle-length skirt. In both cases, after wondering all kinds of things – is she a nun? test-driving her halloween costume? – I determined that this was just a woman dressed in her regular clothes, that just happened to be all black.
Allow me to just say clearly: being completely covered in black in late August/early September, at least in The Great Northwest, is an eye-catching look. Not in a good way.
A woman wearing an ankle length skirt, black or not, in 2010 reads as either a member of a very conservative branch of a religion or someone stuck in time. Picture a woman in a beautifully-fitted black cotton piqué sheath- to the knee or just below. She looks current, a woman in a dowdy floor length skirt does not. And for some women, “looking current’ is not valued.
and, even stranger, the second woman had a very stylish hair style! It’s true, the silhouette of the outfits contributed at least as much to the first impression as the color.
Oddly, I disagree about the ankle-length skirt being a signal of ‘very conservative religion’ or ‘stuck in time’. I saw a number of maxi dresses and skirts (not all of the dresses were strappy sundresses or halters) out in town today, on young women, and a lot depends on the accessories and the rest of the outfit. A cropped demin jacket, slim-fitting tee and jewelled sandals don’t really scream ‘religious conservative.’ And since all of this is sold right now (or has been all summer) in high-street shops catering to the under-30s, it’s hardly ‘stuck in time’.
I was thinking of the ankle length black skirt. A woman in a floor length black skirt will also look like a member of a symphony orchestra.
As for the maxi dress, I wore it in the 60s; to me, they look too “jeune fille” on mature women.
And then I was thinking that perhaps if it had been a nice pair of trousers it would have looked normal. But yesterday I saw that type of ensemble walking down the sidewalk and it just looked bad too. Not quite as startling, but an anachronism none the less.
My sister hypothesizes that some people just can’t wait for fall, but I think of fall as more of a sunny, toasted, colorful season. Perhaps in other areas it is different. (Where my sister lives, it rains about 9 months out of the year.)