Small Talk

This weekend I had a lovely trip to the Philadelphia area to see my college friends Becca and Mike. On Saturday Becca and I went shopping, and throughout the day I talked her ear off about all kinds of random stuff that I've learned this past year. I find myself doing this to everyone these days, and while most of them swear that it is fascinating, I think they are humoring me a little bit. So for those of you who miss having me around, just picture me saying one of the following "conversation starters" and it will be exactly like the real thing.

"Did you know that before they figured out to create cultured pearls, real pearls were more valuable than any other precious stone? I mean, think about it. Divers had to go down and pull up oysters and like, 1 in 10 would have a pearl. And 1 in 100 would have a pearl that was even remotely close to the same color and size as the last one you found.

"So do you want to hear how cultured pearls are created?"

"Most perfumes today are made with all kinds of synthetic chemicals, but Chanel no.5 is still made from natural ingredients."

"Do you realize that ready-made clothes are a relatively recent invention? The revolution in ready-to-wear meant that clothes had to be designed to fit as many people as possible. Most of us have never had something made just for us...we don't even know what well-fitted clothing feels like!"

Here is one I haven't burdened anyone with yet, so maybe if I type it here I can remember not to bring it up next time everyone else is having a nice, normal conversation that doesn't involve the history of clothing...

I've been re-reading parts of Anne Hollander's book Seeing Through Clothes which was required summer reading last year for my first class. I giggled too when I first saw the title, but considering how much of the book is about "the fashionable body" underneath historical clothes, it is quite apt. Anyway, one of the things that makes it tough to be a fashion historian is the criticism that clothing is artificial and frivolous. While most people aren't nudists, many feel that clothing is something false whereas nakedness is natural and pure. But as Hollander points out (and my World Dress and Textiles class confirmed) every human culture dresses or decorates the body in some way. She writes:

Nakedness is not a customary but rather an assumed state, common to all but natural to none, except on significantly marked occasions. These might be ritual, theatrical, or domestic, but they are always special, no matter how frequent."

Isn't that interesting?! Maybe our most natural, human state is dressed! Don't you wish I was talking incessantly to you right now about this very subject?