Creative Comfort

In my most recent TST submission, I made reference to dressing up in your favorite outfit. Our wonderfully talented and super funny Salvaged commented, "It definately made me remember things about being young particularly that favorites outfit.
I can't say I've worn a favorites outfit in a long time but I do play a subversive version of dress up. Tomorrow I'm debating between mad scientist, time traveler or starving artist. :)"

That comment not only made me laugh out loud but it made me think about a post I wrote for my blog, CreativeNachos titled, "Creative Comfort" in February 2008 and I simply had to share it with you.

For your Monday entertainment, here is a little laughter and some creative comfort!

Sometimes I wish I could wear my pajama bottoms everywhere. I wore a uniform in grammar school. During the early years, there was a comfort in the conformity; a sense of belonging that was especially reassuring for someone who always felt like an outsider. Yet, despite my desire to “fit in”, the uniform consistency lost its appeal as I grew older. Mini-explosions of personality manifested themselves in things like wearing jams under my uniform skirt; the bottom of the jams hanging slightly below the hem of the skirt, a colorful teaser. Thermal leggings were another favorite. Most girls wore them in one of the two colors available, pink or blue; I wore pink and wrote poetry on the material around the knees. I painted “Light my Fire” in tribute to The Doors on my jean jacket and wore it with pride till perverts in the street started offering to light it for me.


In high school – a truly sorted time – I let graffiti artists cover my white Keds with tags; I even included the one I created for myself, Lumina. I rocked the Doc Marten combat boots. My father said, “You know Natasha when I was young, when people would say, ‘Your Mama wears combat boots’ it was considered an insult. I never thought I’d live to see the day my daughter would be wearing them.” My “Goth” phase was less about “Gothic” style and more about “Gotham City” where all black was tres chic.

I loved wearing suits. That's a lie; let me rephrase. I loved wearing a suit on the first day of a new job when I was in Corporate America but after that, I was done. It seemed like more fun to wear a purple boa or Wonder Woman T-shirt with the suits. Oddly, that was not a hit in high level business meetings.


This New Year’s Eve, I wore my pajamas out to the festivities because I wanted to usher in a more relaxing, fun-filled year. Today, with the exception of meetings, I don’t have to dress up for work. Don’t get me wrong, I like throwing on a dress and some heels for a nice night out but I dig comfort more than anything and lots of color. My ideal outfit is the one pictured here. If I could wear my pajama pants everywhere I would along with clogs, my comfy snowflake shirt and my hat. For some reason I am obsessed with wearing that hat. If I could shower with it on and still get my hair clean I would. And the sunglasses used to be an essential hangover accessory. With fewer hangovers to report now, I wear them so I can feed the obsessive “people-watching” monkey on my back without people knowing about it.


This outfit is the perfect representation of me on the inside, the four-year-old me. I think we would be able to tell so much more about a person if we all showed up in our pajamas. Think about it. The people who wear the conservative colored pajamas are different from the ones who wear the wild animal prints. What about those who wear the bottom of their pajamas without the top or vice versa? And what about those nightgown lovers? Don’t even get me started on the naked ones who won’t take off their socks! I think conversations would be much more interesting, business deals would happen faster and people would feel a greater sense of freedom if we all wore our pajamas. Don’t you?


Tell me, what is your favorite outfit? What is the one thing you’d wear everyday if you could?

© Copyright Natasha Reilly 2008