Tuesday, August 2, 2011

MY PRINCESS DRESS



If I cared for fashion at all, I’d wear cartoon clothes.   Even maybe Minnie Mouse shoes---if the occasion were right, and if the magic spell which keeps them on works for people as well, I think they’d feel REALLY good.

And the soft lines of the dresses--- all princesses seem mired in the attire of their OWN countries and days---Grimm days and Mother Goose days and the times of HC Andersen, as well as even more ancient stories      They go straight from woodcut images in books to screen, it seems, though the blue-dress Cinderella’s semi-panniers reflect a century later than her purported origins in folk tales.
Anyway, there’s just something about the 3-D-ish fantasy curves and swirls of the clothes, with such shadows and shadings which render them all poufy and grand, and all of which look as if they should be floating in a vast closet, each dancing to and fro on Little Bird Hangers.   

They'd never wrinkle, nor grow too tight; you’d never need support garments, nor makeup, nor scratchy petticoats---just the lovely contours of the light-as-air clothes, which would make us all Cinderellas, or Belles, or Beauties.





I have ONE picture of me, in a Princess Dress---it’s drawn by GrandDaughter Gracie, when she was five.    She sat at her little crafts table for quite a while with her crayons, then handed me the slightly-crumpled page.    There we are, both in our bright pink clogs (which I think are this century’s version of the Minnie Manolos), with her hair in a Pippi Longstocking-Do and me with a waistline I haven’t seen since 1986.

“This is you and me, Ganjin,” she said.   “I’m the blonde.”



8 comments:

  1. That picture is such a treasure.

    I agree that princess dresses should be incredibly comfortable and impressively flattering and require no special cleaning or attention.

    Someone needs to totally design those for us.

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  2. How cute is that! Love the idea of cartoon clothing.

    Hugs sweet friend,
    Kat

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  3. My favorite princess dress of all time was the one the mice and birds made for Cinderella in the original movie. But I think Gracie's "princesses" have to be the sweetest ones I've ever seen, and I know your heart melts every time you look at that precious picture.

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  4. Rachel, after reading this post, I closed my eyes and imagined swirling round and round in my pretty princess dress.

    By, the way, you look beautiful in your princess dress.♥

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  5. Hello Rachel dear, I have just a moment to send a short comment. Today I have company coming (Bill's sister and hubs) and after a week of being gone I have work to do. Sigh!. They will be here for two weeks. We will have a fine time but backed up to my trip to Canada is a bit tough. I want to visit your posts I have missed and I will ASAP.

    Thank you for your sweet comments while I have been gone. There is much to share when I find time.
    I love your fashion story and your darling pink picture of you and your grand. As for a waist line, what's that? HA! We are in the same boat. there.

    Love and hugs to you today,
    Jeanne

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  6. Oh, yes, cartoon dresses always look better than REAL ones, even catwalk dresses (maybe ESPECIALLY catwalk dresses). I always love the dresses that my imagination comes up with when I'm reading. They always drape so PERFECTLY!

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  7. I'm all about kids art! I'd take that pic and iron carefully on the back to remove wrinkles and then take it and have it framed! it is worthy to be an heirloom!

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