The Conundrum of the “Costume” …a suitable suit for some fun with fashion. Does this manner of dress “suit” you?
Definition of Conundrum: 1) an intricate and difficult problem or 2) a question or problem having only a conjectural answer.
Exactly 500 neckties (as in the Fortune 500 companies because corporate types used to wear suits), floss, buttons, suspenders, zipper, feathers, applique
This piece is about how as a society we associate different pieces or elements of clothing with one gender or another. I made a jacket (lined with ties and called “lucky in love”) and wide legged pants with handsewn necktie tails which gives the impression of also being a skirt. These tails were sorted by color, scale of pattern and direction of the design. Then each group was divided in two so the legs would balance…nothing was chosen randomly. The jacket is woven on the back to symbolize how fashion choices mesh. I offer a series of questions and an essay of idioms to expand on this concept.
Q Why does a man wear a “suit”, but a woman wears a “pants suit”?
Q A man’s skirt is called a kilt, not a skirt, why?
Q Would an electrician not always be wearing a “power suit”?
Q What do I wear if I am “perfectly suited” to follow my strong suit…. or should I just suit myself with following suit?
Q A man can wear a tie, but not a scarf, a woman wears a scarf but not a tie, but if one does the unexpected, how is it often received or perceived?
I am sure you have questions too…...but here is a story I stitched together, perhaps salvageable, or maybe knot. The pattern is against the grain but thread your way through.
I needed to line my pockets as I was living on a shoestring and flying by the seat of my pants. A party was in progress next door, so I pressed my pleats and measured the crowd. Folks were dressed to the nines, dressed to impress, dressed for success and dressed to kill whether their style as to dress up or dress down. I did have an ace up my sleeve so this smarty pants headed to the black jack table to size up the competition. Rolling up my sleeves but not wanting to lose my shirt, I pretended to be thread bare. My first opponent appeared to have deep pockets, but he was keeping that fact close to the vest. Opponent number two was already falling apart at the seams. Next was the stuffed shirt who thought I looked too big for my britches, but he folded like a cheap suit soon after. At the remnant end of the table was a gal as cute as a button, but not to skirt the issue, she was bursting at the seams…close to wearing her birthdays suit, moments away from a wardrobe malfunction. So, with too little money burning a hole in my pocket, I buckled down and planned to hit them below the belt. I made an off the cuff remark that aired some dirty laundry saying I wore the pants in the family! (For which I have a vested interest) but before I could go on, the empty suit got his knickers in a twist and told me to button it up and that all I wanted to do was ride his coattails. Miss Matched, who was hemmed in next to me, told him to keep his shirt on, that we were all cut from the same cloth. So, I followed suit and declared that yes, clothes do make the man (or woman) and we should all wear our hearts on our sleeves (unless your dress is strapless) in which case we are perfectly suited to iron things out and leave this conversation at the drop of a hat before getting all hot under the collar. So, the party broke up and we tightened our belts for another round to tie one on!