...Wienand arrived, accompanied by a rather languid girl with frizzed hair and wearing what looked exactly like a silver tissue tent...He looked at his companion. 'Darling why can't you wear a dress that shows a bit of you sometimes?" Sun and Candlelight
The Estimable Betty is a fabric snob. Tweeds, needlecord, jersey, denim, chiffon, crepe de Chine, corduroy, voile, rabbit fur (when lowly nurses), real fur (when consultants' wives). All 'good' fabrics. The jury is out on cotton unless a beach visit is upcoming.
Tissue--metallic of any shade. Bad fabric. Very, very bad fabric. Bony, hollow-busted models wear this and nibble on carrots and receive disapproving frowns from well-dressed and bosom-y elderlies. Fake fur is only good enough to snare American millionaires...who aren't very discriminating anyway.
Having an infant, denim and cotton are my go-to fabrics even though all my ensembles are decidedly off-the-peg. My standard is: Can I rub a baby wipe on it (to remove spit, spit-up, snot, and...(shudder) other) and proceed anew? I see beyond the bright horizon to another world of fabric choices bu...Dude!...Seriously?! (grabs wipe, sponges furiously)
What's your go-to fabric? And would Betty approve?
I forgot lurex. Anything made out of lurex ought to be taken from the manufacturing plant directly to the incinerator.
ReplyDeleteAnd sequins. Sequins are very bad in the Bonnettiere (nice, i.e. expensive, Dutch boutique) world.
ReplyDeleteHere's my fabric snobbery story. I was doing Christmas present shopping late (like after Christmas late; this delay had been sanctioned by the recipients) and grabbed a sweater from an Van Heusen outlet store for my aunt. Aunt is 85 or so, tall & thin, but only "real" fabrics will do for her: wool, etc.
My fear was that the sweater -- which otherwise was perfect: lightweight, ribbed (so that a large would be long enough in the sleeves but not look baggy on her torso), and a nice deep cranberry color -- was a microfiber which Aunt would pooh-pooh as being polyester.
Imagine my relief when the tag read 100% cotton. Didn't feel much like cotton, which was interesting, but I didn't care about that -- I just needed the documentation!
Me -- I wear cotton, but really anything that fits and isn't too stained. I don't have an infant to blame any of the stains on, either -- they are all my own fault.
I have had my ups and downs with cotton knits...comfortable, yes. Magnets for unmentionable messes, also, yes.
ReplyDeleteThere was the time I was in Nordstrom's with a three month old...who ended up having diarrhea all down the front of my outfit, and then down to the carpet. There was a long line in the ladies loo, but I barged through it to the fold down baby changing thingy...cleaning the baby up was easy - me? Not so easy. Let's just say that I was never so happy to have a baby to carry around than I was for the rest of that day - to hide the carnage. When that same baby (who turns 15 tomorrow!) was around 3, we had to take him to the emergency walk-in clinic on New Years Day. He threw up repeatedly on my white cotton sweatshirt. There's just nothing you can do to save that situation. I left Dr. Stevejinck at the clinic while I drove to the only store around there that was open and bought a new shirt - and then changed in the car. I think I just threw the sweatshirt away (I had gotten it for Christmas from my sister-in-law - and I wasn't overly fond of it anyway).
Hand knit wool. Of course Betty would approve.
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