OVERDRESSED and OUT OF PLACE: Best Friend Means Not Having to Expain Your Outfit
Eeek! BOO IS COMING. Nicole is on an eight hour flight from New York to Seattle, then she’ll be back in Boise for one short week. We have much frivolity lined up, including a special vintage photo shoot with the Boise FU branch. Stay freaking tuned, ya’ll.
It has been just under 5 months since I said goodbye to Nicole at the subway station in Williamsburg with tears streaming down her face. She never showed an iota of hesitation about her move to Brooklyn to pursue acting. Nicole is a powerful force of fabulous, and likely to get what she wants out of the big city…. Boo amputation still sucks.
I sent these pleated olive trousers to New York in one of many care packages stuffed to bursting with vintage clothes bought at Idaho thrifting prices. I got them in Mountain Home with Bethany on the day Bethany fell in love with color.
Since the move, I have lost a profoundly comforting presence in my life. Oh, Google video chat and phone calls and care packages help, but they don’t fill the empty space in my soul. I have lost my fellow mischief-maker, silk-painter, chalk-drawer, cookie-baker, Rodney-lover, Catan-rival and Trekkie.
(Thanks to Bethany and Anna for my pictures!) We splattered blue and green on this hand-painted silk skirt together. Here’s a shot of it in progress:
Since we’ve been friends since high school, we’ve formed our tastes for good vegetables, vintage clothes, and making art together. She doesn’t have to explain to me why tying the front of a demure checked high-necked blouse is a good idea. I know it’s a good idea.
I don’t have to explain to her why tucking in heavy suede shirt to a delicate silk skirt is a good idea. She understands.
I showed up to this photo shoot expecting mixed reviews from the other ladies. It doesn’t bother me that I get the occasional skeptical brow-raise from a cohort, because I know that on the other side of the continental united states, someone gets it.
Like me, Nicole loves irony and unlikely juxtapositions. We like geeky sci-fi references and bad movies. We like being slightly overdressed and out of place for every occasion. I love how Nicole’s outfit is borderline middle-aged country club fare. Such gall!
My outfit is unattainable, unrelatable, and unsympathetic. I like to start off on the wrong foot with people. It makes it more of a challenge to win them over (see also: douche-bag buffer).
The biggest thing I miss about having Nicole in the same city is not having to explain myself. Many people do not understand why unsympathetic and unrelatable would be goals to strive for while getting dressed, but Knuckle does.
Perhaps some wouldn’t understand why Nicole would take her already king-sized ass and stuff it into a pair of high-waisted pleated pants that will do nothing but make it look like more of a planetoid (with its own weather system), but I do.
To be clear, I wouldn’t take her back even if she wanted to come home. She’s doing exactly what she should be: committing to her art, going outside her comfort zone, and attacking her goals. I’m exactly where I should be too, but, sometimes, I miss not having to explain why two bulky, figure-masking, unsexy garments make a right. Only a Boo would know without asking.
Overdressed and out of place – Why do you say that like its a bad thing?
