Entry tags:
My favourite piece of clothing
[December Days masterpost, with two days still kinda-sorta available - I've got fillers/secondary requests planned for them, but if you'd like something and haven't given me a prompt yet, please feel encouraged to!]
... actually probably has to be my dinner suit, which also has the distinctions of being (1) the most expensive clothing I own and (2) the only pair of trousers I have ever owned that actually fits.
At the beginning of my second year, because of Reasons, I ended up going to a Properly Formal dinner. Like, actually and seriously black tie. The most appropriate thing I had to wear was a green silk floor-length ballgown. (I wore cargo shorts underneath it for the sake of pockets.) It was pretty much then that I swore I was never going to present normatively femme for anything ever again, and I got![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hairyears to introduce me to his tailor, and I got a suit made.
I have since worn it to perform in more concerts than I can count; at the kind of formal dinner that's routine at Cambridge; to my graduation; and to a couple of funerals and similar functions. It's my favourite not just because it is clothing that actually fits me (and was deliberately tailored to look good while I'm playing music) and is much more multi-purpose and probably fundamentally cheaper than buying dresses for all those occasions would have been, but because in its way it's a symbol of becoming an adult, of saying "this is who I am and who I am going to be", of being sure enough of myself to make investments.
In St John's, for a departmental dinner.
At graduation, with my shirt pulled askew by my hood, but - I did it, I fucking did it.
(Of course, there's lots of other things I love - the teal knee-high DMs; my shirts, various; my first cufflinks, silver and Lizard serpentine; the hoodies I curl up in and have as my armour; but this -- this is special.)
... actually probably has to be my dinner suit, which also has the distinctions of being (1) the most expensive clothing I own and (2) the only pair of trousers I have ever owned that actually fits.
At the beginning of my second year, because of Reasons, I ended up going to a Properly Formal dinner. Like, actually and seriously black tie. The most appropriate thing I had to wear was a green silk floor-length ballgown. (I wore cargo shorts underneath it for the sake of pockets.) It was pretty much then that I swore I was never going to present normatively femme for anything ever again, and I got
hairyears to introduce me to his tailor, and I got a suit made.I have since worn it to perform in more concerts than I can count; at the kind of formal dinner that's routine at Cambridge; to my graduation; and to a couple of funerals and similar functions. It's my favourite not just because it is clothing that actually fits me (and was deliberately tailored to look good while I'm playing music) and is much more multi-purpose and probably fundamentally cheaper than buying dresses for all those occasions would have been, but because in its way it's a symbol of becoming an adult, of saying "this is who I am and who I am going to be", of being sure enough of myself to make investments.
In St John's, for a departmental dinner.
At graduation, with my shirt pulled askew by my hood, but - I did it, I fucking did it.
(Of course, there's lots of other things I love - the teal knee-high DMs; my shirts, various; my first cufflinks, silver and Lizard serpentine; the hoodies I curl up in and have as my armour; but this -- this is special.)
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I also used to play the violin and piano to a reasonable amateur standard until my hands gave out (RSI); I miss them, but hey. We do what we can.
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We played flute and probably still could, if we could hold our arms up for more than 15 minutes. XD We still have our flute, though, and I'd like to do something with it, even if it's a matter of doing serious rehab on our shoulders. We've never been small group performers - turns out that mind-numbing stage fright was just our severe social phobia. -laughs- We do a LOT better playing support roles in general and were in heaven playing last chair of the entire flute section in college. There's got to be some sort of community orchestra somewhere we can play again, y'know? We miss it a lot - we seriously pondered minoring in vocal and flute in college.