Summer Love

Here are the last of the printed jeans I'm determined to show you. I'm going to bend the unspoken outfit-post rules here and beg you not to say anything bad about them, 'cause I just love them. You know how these love affairs start. You're cruising through the store (in this case JCP ... yes, again) and something almost jumps off the display or flings itself off the hanger, right at you. "Take me home ... you'll look beee-you-teeee-fulll wearing me! I was made just for youuuuuuu."

Well. Maybe, maybe not. But I don't care. I was just enough in possession of my wits to take them into the dressing room and try them on. And, because I could just slip into them without too many hops and wiggles, and because of the unusually flattering dressing room lighting ( which never exists in this dimension) I fell officially in outfit-love. Sold. MINE!

Another reason I love them is when I asked my husband's opinion, (after making all the obligatory flattering noises) he replied,

"Don't be offended, 'cause I really do like them, but they remind me of those drapes we used to see in the late 50s when everything was, like, tropical."

Yes I do remember. In 1959 Hawaii became our 50th state. Everything was Hawaiian and lots of women were wearing muumuus and every kid wore thongs ( contemporarily, they are flip-flops ... not to be confused with the almost-underwear item.) Many homes sported bamboo furniture and living-room drapes featuring big tropical prints. Just like my jeans.

But instead of being aghast at his very apt comparison, I like these vivid jeans even more because of it.  They also remind me of some very pleasant, sun-soaked and sandy, beachy Southern California days of my childhood and young womanhood. Also of some really great dates at Trader Vic's and my first Mai Tai in a Tiki mug. And I think about all that and more whenever I look at them. Good thoughts.

Again, I just love the connection between clothing and ideas.

Yes, they are trendy. But, after all, a trend refers to an idea translated into clothing. Trends and trendiness get a bad rap in their current extended meaning. It isn't a compliment if someone calls you a trend-chaser. I know all that. However, if you're going to voluntarily make the slippery slope slide into trendiness, what better time is there to jump in than in summer? And, even better, in old age? Summer is the ideal time for this addled but excusably enchanted behavior. One hopes, anyway.

And I have to give special mention to these shoes. I am similarly seduced by these shoes, and am tickled that they work well with these pants. I tried, but I just can't get a photo of them that does them justice. They are made of a beautiful, taupey-brown lamé stuff, and as much as I love them, they don't get out and about much as they deserve. They look happy to me with this outfit. This will be their year, I think.

My pants and I are showing up at the sophisticated hippy-chick Patti's place and her Visible Monday celebration. Please pop over and see what all the other wonderful wahine are up to!