Although the days when I was a svelte 110 pounds are long gone, I still like to read the fashion magazines while I stand in line at the grocery checkout, and imagine what new styles I would wear if I still had the body to carry them off.
So I had to laugh when I read about the latest in fall fashions.
The fashionistas, in an apparent belated nod to the 9/11 disasters, are selling the idea of a “sartorial safety net,” according to Globe fashion maven Tina Cassidy. The new trend is to dress as if your dotcom fortune tanked and terrorists destroyed your apartment, and you had to make do with stuff from the attic and the nearest Salvation Army bin. Clothes as camoflage. The brittle, all-in-black-all-the-time “Sex in the City” look is out. Logo-splashed accessories are out. “I have more money than God” separates made from the collected silk of endangered spiders handwoven by indigenous artisans dwelling in photogenic mountain ranges are out. Intimidation is out. Comfort (physical and spiritual) is in.
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I woke up late on Friday morning, so I had to race out the door without turning on the radio, which is why I didn’t hear about George Harrison’s passing until I was halfway to class. It was hard to pay attention to the road after that. Maybe it was late-semester stress or sleep deprivation, but the news hit me hard. It helped that almost every station on my car radio, including NPR, played his music in tribute. It was both painful and comforting to be reminded in such a direct way of whom we’d lost.