Favorite Garments, A Lifetime List

Sometime in the early 1950s I was given a great gift: a hand-knitted gray-and-white Norwegian sweater. It may have been a bit too large for me, but I wore it almost every day through high school and college and for many years thereafter. True, it became a little ratty around the waist, but my mother-in-law, a skilled knitter, was able to repair it, and did so, more than once. The leather elbow patches were my own contribution, and if they were not exactly symmetrically placed, so what?  I disagreed with those who felt that the beauty of the garment was compromised by the vivid mustard stain on the right sleeve. I was still wearing the sweater in the 1980s, when my daughter begged it. Of course I gave it to her, but I now believe that she was in surreptitious league with other members of my family to get the sweater out of my hands and off my back. I've never seen her wear it.

It was in the 1970s that I received another gift of an important garment -- a Guatemalan shirt -- a camisa -- of the sort worn in Todos Santos: a multicolored embroidered --  or is it brocaded -- piece of fabric attached to a blue-and-white striped shift that hung down to mid-thigh -- very convenient for use as towel or hot cloth. I loved that shirt and wore it even to work. It's possible that some people dismissed me as an eccentric or that others presumed that I was making an anti-colonial statement, but in fact I just thought the shirt was comfortable and handsome. I remember overhearing  a student -- one of the brainless ones -- who hated college, hated literature, and hated me -- mumble under his breath (in those days I could still hear), "Well, at least he's not a dull dresser." I don't know what became of the camisa. I suspect that it was desaparecida.

Another favorite garment was a yellow leather shirt jacket which I wore until it shredded. This jacket ran into trouble on a cross-country trip when it was packed on top of the car, under a canvas. It lay too close to a dyed leather coat (not mine) and during a flash Nebraska rainstorm was thoroughly  soaked and acquired a large purple stain. I didn't mind, because the stain was in the back, but I bowed to social pressure and gave it up, which was a shame, because I didn't get more than twenty years use out of it.  And then there was that lovely orange-brown corduroy jacket that I bought at the Presbyterian thrift store for $2.00. That was real beauty.  So was the tailored denim suit coat which I have vainly tried to replace -- they just don't make them like that any more. 

Still another memorable garment: a green hooded cotton sweatshirt that, after I had worn it for a decade or so, was nicely broken in. It had lots of wear left in it, but I made the dreadful error of mentioning to  my daughter-in-law that, wearing it, I had twice been taken for a homeless person. She snatched the sweatshirt away from me and threw it into the garbage (I rescued it for rags). She then immediately went out and bought me a perfectly lovely new Carhartt hooded sweatshirt, very high quality, with a zipper and everything, which I have worn every day during the cold months for two seasons and which will, within a dozen or so years, no doubt become quite comfortable. 

 

 

Comments

[Eve]

I wore the grey and white one throughout high school. I miss it!

[Spike D]

One of these items is safe and sound with me!