Or he is very much the horny.

The Annalucia is disappointed that the Mrs. Hasselhoff would wear the dirty, ripped jeans to a public function. Aside from that she is happy to second the remarks made by LaBellaDonna.

The jeans of the Mrs. Hasselhoff probably cost in excess of $300. The Annalucia and La BellaDonna didn’t get the memo from the fashionistas that such jeans are very much in vogue. I also doubt that the jeans are actually dirty but rather are distressed by hand at quite a premium. Mrs. Hasselhoff is trying to stay in step with the times. The Scarlett wonders, is the woman over the age 40 not permitted to wear the pants of the denim? Should she instead wear the jeans of the mortals or should she shun them altogether?

Hola, La BellaDonna and the AnnaLucia! Count the Mimi in, on this side of the “debate.” She would further say to the Scarlett that the photographs of those who think that because something costs a lot or that is appeared in a memo, it must be in good taste and style, those pictures provide many giggles and sometimes nightmares. A woman over 40 (yes, count me in for that, too) is permitted to wear anything she damn well pleases, and if she has a sense of fashion and style, and of who she is, she will dress appropriately for an occasion–whatever the occasion might be. If she is appearing in public, at a benefit, torn jeans are inappropriate. But so are they inappropriate at such a function for the woman of any age, and for the man of any age, and even for the child.

We as adults have a responsibility to set a good example for others. To add to what La BellaDonna said, the superfantastic woman over 40 is in a position to embody sophistication and elegance. We are living examples for the younger women, to show them what it means to be dignified as we age gracefully.

The Mimi also takes note that the press objected to the genuine affection between the long-married Mr. and Mrs. Hasselhoff, but found the torn jeans to be just fine. All the more reason to not “read the memo.”

Hola, Mimi! Sí, very much sí! La BellaDonna doubts not that the Scarlett, she is right about the jeans costing in excess of $300, but La BellaDonna, she spoke of “elegance,” and not the “fashion.” La BellaDonna watches the “fashion” with much interest, but it has virtually nothing to do with the “style,” which is the very good friend of the woman over the 40 years of the age. The jeans could not possibly be more distressed than La BellaDonna, who does not care for this form of conspicuous consumption, and believes that the Thorstein Veblen and the Alison Lurie, they would agree. La BellaDonna, who has been staggeringly poor (it is not so many years since she picked firewood off the railroad tracks in the winter to burn for the heat, and no, this is not the joke), does not appreciate nor approve of the “fashion” which it imitates what many of the peoples can be reduced to. La BellaDonna, even when she was picking the firewood off the railroad tracks, her clothes were clean and mended.

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.

The photo that The Manolo features here was taken at the Tribeca Film Festival. The Scarlett has frequented the film festivals, most recently the Philadelphia Film Festival. The audience at such events usually dresses in the casual fashion for the comfort. At such festivals the films are the Independent variety and not of the high budget. Frequently the director and the actors of such movies wish to relate to the mortals and thus the jeans of the denim and not the chic suit or festive frock would be most appropriate. So, say what you will about the clothing of the Mrs. Hasselhoff, The Scarlett says she was appropriate for the event she attended. Now, if the Mrs. Hasselhoff wore that ensemble to the Merion Cricket Club The Scarlett she would give the Mrs. Hasselhoff the look of the disapproval while raising her pinky and sipping her tea.

La BellaDonna, who, inter alia, works as the independent actress, is as mortal as the next person. Given past events in her life, possibly a bit more so. She is not, apparently, the mortal to whom you are referring, in terms of “relating.” She, too, dresses always for the comfort, and quite often for the casualness, but it does not involve the torn clothing, nor the dirty, or “simulated dirty,” clothing.

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.)

La BellaDonna, she is most anxious that it is understood that she is not entering into the dispute with the Scarlett, nor that she is attempting to control what the Scarlett wears. This country, one of the many wonderful things about it, is that the Scarlett and La BellaDonna and the Manolo and all his internet friends, may each dress as he or she chooses.

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.

Oh, the Carol she is the mother of 3 urchins and has the superwide feet (not to mention the superwide ass) and does not hobnob with the likes of those who drape their lithe bodies in the clothes of the Prada nor the shoes of the Blahnik. No, the castoffs of the Carol and her friends, they are the comfortable clothes stained with the fingerpaint and the pudding of chocolate, and the superwide athletic shoes with the mud of the playground between the treads.