Kashmir

A Bank of America (boo, hiss!) credit card ad on AOL (yeah, I still have an AOL account — how retro am I?!) has pics of two sweaters. The adline is something like “whether it’s an ugly Christmas sweater or cashmere...”

Here’s the thing, you can get sinfully, horrifically homely cashmere.

OK, OK I need to qualify — while beauty and ugly are surely in the eye of the beholder, there’re just some things that should NOT be done.

Cashmere’s expensive shit — as much as $294 for a single cardigan on the Lord and Taylor website. You can mebbe find one on sale for the not so low, low price of $70 if you look long and hard and aren't real picky about the color. If you’re gonna invest in a sweater made from this pricey stuff you might ought to think about which hues you rock best.

Right?

A pale skinned human with light mouse brown hair does themselves a disservice when he/she dons vibrant colors like, say, hot pink or Crayola Blue. OK, yes, I'm talkin' about someone in particular.

Are you an Autumn? A Summer? Mebbe a Winter or Spring?

The Color Me Pretty site intellectualizes the whole thing by bringing Newton, Goethe, Bauhaus dude Johannes Itten, and the momma of the whole shebang, Suzanne Caygill into the convo. Awesome!

Here’s the thing — on every damn What Season Are You? page I scanned, my “light Spring,” cashmere buying friend is cleared by the fashion gods to wear fuchsia and bright red. Ouch! She was def a pretty woman but completely dissapeared in these shades. Subtle pastels (i.e., NO lavenders or pinks) or greytones would've complemented her coloring MUCH better.

Is this tragedy? Fuck no! This woman was astoundingly wealthy — from a big buck family and married to a man who made out mega huge in the dot.com boom. She could afford a closetful of cashmere sweaters in every damn color of the rainbow. She didn't shoot her frock budget on one poor pullover purchase.

More importantly, shouldn’t we wear colors, clothes that make us happy? Bright, bright tones brought big smiles to my friend's face.

I once made a bitchy, uncharitable comment to Kevin about a passerby — a majorly large woman wearing a snug, neon bright floral patterned schmatta. The dress was pretty awful all on it’s own and it surely did her grande masse no bloody favors. Kevin’s brill response? “She’s not gonna look good in anything she wears so she should wear what she likes.” YES. TRUE! Who the fuck am I to pick and moo — when she looks in the mirror, when she dons her daily regalia, it’s HER damn joy that matters — no one else’s.

I suppose this gets me to this — why do I wear the togs I do?

I want to be comfortable AND I like deep reds, purples and black. Tie dye too! Maybe especially tie dye. Do I look good in my blazing tie dye Ts and smocks? Who the fuck knows? They make me happy. That's what counts.
Kashmir — Led Zeppelin