-There’s a passage in Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life that I think about a lot, where he talks about how people make the mistake of thinking you should like clothing (or landscapes, songs, etc.) described in great literature to somehow access the greatness, but that this is wrong.
Now you could get meta about this and say that Botton is only saying this because Proust said it. (This is the gist of the book.) But I’m instead going to say that you should absolutely consider the aesthetics described or depicted in a work as part of the whole, and if that means taking clothing and home decor inspiration from The Golden Girls, so be it.
I went to Ischia and Naples 6 years ago (aka the last time I left the house) because of the Ferrante books and this was a really good idea! But more typically, I buy things in a vintage store in Toronto because they remind me of something from a sitcom. Nothing whatsoever wrong with this. Apologies to Monsieur de Botton.
-Camouflage. Leopard/cheetah print. Breton-stripes. Are there others I’m not thinking of? Patterns that are, somehow, neutrals. I don’t think anything black-white-gray counts. There needs to be some color in there. I try to have as many unexpected neutrals in my wardrobe, apparently. Not consciously, but I am drawn to these.
-Posh-mom dressing. It’s a thing. I remember noticing it 500 years ago, when very much not a mom myself. I lived in Battery Park City and would see these Tribeca moms at the Whole Foods and they were all glossy-haired, 5’10” and looked like they worked out all day, presumably because they did. My bit of Toronto doesn’t have that exactly but there’s something closer to a Cobble Hill mom, I think, from what I remember of that. Something something clogs. Also everything oversize, which I read on some fashion Substack makes clothes look fancy, which is convenient because I do things like get a herringbone tweet overcoat at Expo Vintage By The Pound (this was last year? the year before?) for their usual $17 and it’s perfect but also enormous and go to a dry cleaner and ask to have it taken in and they’re like, Get a different coat.
Anyway I have a whole outfit in mind, based around the garment below, which I found for I think $50 (it is always $50, some sort of nice-used-clothing collusion across all establishments) at a Parkdale used clothing store. I will pair the “coverall” with my gold clogs and strut around farmers markets. (What shirt goes under it though? Here I am stumped. Presumably not a second pair of pants as well.)
What I definitely won’t do is somehow realize I’ve left the house in camo-print black-gray Lululemon once-maternity not even leggings but jogging pants paired with a stained Zabar’s shirt that is from the kids’ section of that particular grocery store and technically belongs to a kid who very understandably does not want this for herself. I would never, ever do such a thing.
I hope you are collecting satin dressing gowns. I don't watch old sit-coms; I watch old dumb movies, which last week led me to a sort of proto Hallmark movie starring Blanche as a mother of 4 adult children who all descend upon her just as she has remarried and become pregnant despite being in her 50s. The most entertainingly improbable part was watching her wear a tiny baby bump and run around like a non-pregnant 30yo.