And yes, the Line of the Main, it has the superfantistic stores, with the superfantastic shoes. And La BellaDonna, she is grateful for them; she no longer has to pick up the firewood off the railroad tracks of the Chestnut Hill West local, but she still does not have very much of the money, so she is very happy to go the Sophisticated Seconds or the Green Street when the friends of the Carol and the Scarlett donate or consign their clothing and shoes from the superfantastic stores!

[Or perhaps it is the consigned clothing of the mamas of the Carol and the Scarlett, all the things considered. ;)]

No; it is that La BellaDonna, she is struggling to understand why this is the choice that is made? It is true that beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder, and La BellaDonna is a vigorous champion of the belief that there are many many different types of beauty, and not only that which is popular with the media this week.

But why choose to be dirty, rather than clean? Why choose the torn, rather than the mended? When one has worked hard, it is the sybaritic luxury to become clean afterwards. When La BellaDonna sees the torn clothing, she worries that there has perhaps been an accident, and that someone has been hurt. She starts to look in her pocketbook for the bandaids and the disinfectant, and perhaps the safety pins to help keep the clothes together.

She understands that for the inarticulate youth, it can be the protest against the “Establishment,” a way to differentiate from the adult world. But these peoples, they are the Establishment; they are very much a part of the adult world of work, communication and responsibility. For the adults to imitate the disaffected youth, La BellaDonna finds it implausible, affected and inauthentic. And perhaps a bit pitiable. And La BellaDonna believes that the effect that is being sought is not one of pathos, so it is perhaps not the very successful endeavor.

The clothing, it can be the matter of great joy. It can lift the heart, when the wearer is depressed. It can transform the wearer so that the inner beauty is visible to all that see her. It is not necessary that it be the silk, or the satin, or the gabardine, or the chiffon; the serge de Nimes, it has had its place for centuries, and will continue to do so. It comes in the blue, and the black, and the white, and the colours of the rainbow; it comes printed with the little duckies, and with the patterns of the Renaissance. It sits in piles in La BellaDonna’s workroom, because she has the great love for the denim - along with many other fabrics. It does not have to be the ballgown; the drawstring trousers, the tank top - these are all excellent garments, each under the right circumstances. La BellaDonna has them, and wears them. But the tank tops, the drawstring trousers - these should be chosen to flatter the wearers. This is not the burden; this is the wonder of clothing, that there should be the opportunity to be improve one’s day, one’s life, by this factor, if no other.

Why is it that the presumption, it seems to be that the attractive and the clean clothes, must perforce be the uncomfortable clothes? La BellaDonna, she does not understand this. It is true that the clothing of the ultra-fashionable, or ultra-stylish (two different categories) can be uncomfortable, but it is not the requirement. La BellaDonna finds that the clean trousers, even the clean jeans, they are no less uncomfortable than the dirty jeans. The mended jeans, they are not uncomfortable. La BellaDonna, she sits on the ground when the occasion warrants; sometimes she might be the only one who does so. La BellaDonna’s clothes allow her to sprint for the 9 bus of the SEPTA on Walnut Street, or to wait numbly in all weathers for it to appear, when and if it chooses to do so. Her flat Buttero boots allowed her to scamper down the 20 flights of the stairs at Liberty Place in bare minutes on September 12, when all the country it was then on heightened alert, and alarms were sounding in office buildings all over the counter.

La BellaDonna maintains that there is the casual clothing which is not the torn or the dirty, which is to be preferred over the casual clothing which is the torn and the dirty, especially for the woman over the 40 years of the age. It is not necessary, nor even desirable, to always seek the lowest common denominator.

(La BellaDonna would also respectfully suggest that if the Scarlett or the Mrs. Hasselhoff take their tea with the peoples who are the British, to refrain from the raising of the pinky whilst sipping their tea. She is not so familiar with the Merion Cricket Club and the rituals accepted there, but to the British, it is not the recognized polite behavior.) (Nor at the Germantown Cricket Club, near which La BellaDonna lived for many years.)

Hey, Manolo, we’ve moved! Can you update your blogroll with our new address? as ever, you remain one of our few links. we love you.

http://musseljuice.typepad.com

The woman over the 40 years of age, yes, she can wear the jeans of the denim, when and wear appropriate, preferably, if they flatter. There are the times and the places where the jeans are suitable, even if they are not the most flattering of garments, but the public event, it is neither the time nor the place. La BellaDonna, she is very happy in her suits and skirts and chapeaux, but, at over the 40 years of the age, she also wears the jeans. She wears them whilst riding the Goldwing, properly accessorized with the helmet, and the sturdy boots of the Buttero. And the jeans, they are clean. And mended.

(And very much ditto what the Mimi said!)

It is the good rule of the thumb: just because it fits, does not mean that it suits. There are many garments that are sold to the unsuspecting public, who have a simple, naive and charming belief that if a garment is sold, it must somehow be “O.K.” to wear. The “imitation dirt” is, in truth, not discernable from the “genuine dirt.” It is, in truth, the less attractive, because perhaps the “genuine dirt,” it was achieved through the hard, honest labour. La BellaDonna does not find the “simulation” of the hard, honest labour attractive; she knows many peoples who labour hard and honestly, whose work gets them quite dirty, and knows that their preference, it is to change into the clean clothes when done.