Monday, June 8, 2009

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

14 comments:

K said...

Well ACTUALLY... **clears throat and grins with pleasure** =)
My very short haircut along with the inevitable swarms of black flies, mosquitoes, and no-see-ums of the Maine woods convinced me to wear a fleece hat almost every day!

Natasha said...

K - I LOVE the throat clearing and pleasure in the fleece hat...we are so well met. The colors of my hat make me so damn happy..it's a little hard to pull off in summer so I get headbands but come winter...that hat and I are best buds...what color is yours?? Have you always rocked the short hair?

Jennifer said...

I LOVE that outfit! The hat has lots of personality for sure. I can see why you love it. Since my dreads are getting longer, hats are more of a challenge, but I get that way with scarves. I have one I've owned for 4 years and two others wear to work all the time. They're like a blankies, I think...Anyhow, my favorite outfit is my "R is for Rockstar" t-shirt and my black pajama pants that I got for Christmas because all my other pjs had paint on them, and guess what...yep, so maybe I'll get more next year. I also love my hot pink flip flops and I believe they go with everything.

Felicia Kramer said...

I'm just the opposite. I'm an Aries, and Aries rules the head. I always use that as the reason why I can't stand anything around my head - not hats, not masks, not scuba gear, not even glasses, although I have to suffer with those every day. Sleep? Usually just an oversized shirt and in the summertime, NADA. And for daytime, if I could live in sweatshirt and jeans forever, I would. The older I get, the more important comfort becomes.

Natasha said...

Jennifer - I LOVE seeing you here. How are you?? YOU are hilarious!! I want to see you in that outfit! Rockstar is one of my favorite words and you are SOOO a rockstar for wearing that T-shirt. I wish pajama bottoms were socially acceptable in all occasions because I would wear them everywhere....and the flip flops?? I was just talking about this last night...If I could wear flip flops year round I would...I love hot pink....you mention scarves too, what color is your favorite scarf?

Felicia - love that you are ruled by the head so to speak hehehe....all of those things I love...I remember wanting glasses when I was in school...now I could do without them ..go you rockin' nada in the summer...in the summer my favorite thing to do is put on light pj's, turn up my A/C and cuddle under a comforter...crazy?? Oh yeh but in the best way hehhehe and sweatshirt and jeans or sweater and jeans is my Fall wardrobe....comfort makes me SOO happy

K said...

Short has been a gradual thing over a lifetime, starting with knee-length and finally reaching an inch this winter! My hat is black with a thin strip near the bottom that's embroidered with little colorful horses =D

I love it just for the little horses, but it's also my reminder to apply forethought to my actions. A few years ago I was loading my horse onto a trailer but didn't think to check where the side door was... I ended up being on the wrong side when she freaked out and slammed me into the wall.

Natasha said...

Ok K...do you even know how much I love the sound of your hat?? I think you need to send a pic....and I love the journey your hair has been on longer to shorter...do you think it is a symbol for life at all - how as life gets older we long for simpler things? My hair has been long - middle of the back to short - to the chin but my head looks ENORMOUS with super short hair so I have it somewhere in between....what kind of horse do you have? I cannot believe you were slammed into the wall....were you badly injured?? Were you araid of your horse at all after?

c by k said...

heh! Funny you should mention life... My horse's name is Aisha, which is the Arabic word meaning 'Life' =) That was intentionally symbolic in many ways. She's 3/4 paint, 1/4 arabian and full of spit (50/50 spirit and shit ;) I actually don't have her anymore - had to sell her in October which tore me up =( I was pretty shook up when I walked out of the trailer (eight stitches in one ear and a few bruises) but it wasn't her fault so I just kept at it and got smarter ;D

As to the hair thing... Simplicity was definitely a deciding factor! Mostly, though, I think it's tied in with my personality. I was incredibly shy as a kid and it's interesting to note that my hair style sort of matched my inward progress of coming out of my shell, so to speak. I'm still a bit shy, and I don't think I'd do the bald look, but... ya never know!

I don't have a pic of the hat, but I did do a short series of paintings featuring Aisha, they're in my shop, here: colorsbyk.etsy.com

Natasha said...

Kaitlin....I love the name Aisha just as I love the story behind her...I'm so very sorry you had to sell her...the paintings of her are gorgeous...I mean truly gorgeous...I want to reach in and touch her...all your work is filled with such amazing color....I so dig that your hairi has followed this pattern of you opening up, sharing you with the world....that rocks...I was laughing so hard about the bald thing..you have to let me know if that happens!

Phoenyx Ravenswing said...

Greetings!

It was very interesting to read this after attending the Jacob meeting this past Friday, where they talked about being comfortable 'in your skin', being comfortable w/being who you are, wherever you are.

Great minds think alike! :-D

BB 7 GF! :-)
-Bird

aquamaureen said...

I went to a leaders' retreat for my Bible study last year. As part of the icebreaker, we were all supposed to bring our jammies in a plain brown numbered paper sack. Then the jammies were displayed, one by one, and we were supposed to write down who we thought each outfit belonged to. When they got to the bag with my number on it, said bag was empty, 'cause I sleep in my birthday suit, year round. The 20-some ladies all had guesses as to who belonged to the empty bag, but nobody guessed me :). Nothing like being "transparently honest" with your Bible buddies . . .

Favorite outfit? a swimsuit in the sun.

SalvagedExpression said...

My perfect outfit is still a work in progress as I'm always searching for the perfect pieces. The shoes would be what I call my thunder boots, a big black pair of high top steel toes. I love them because pretty much anything can happen and those shoes will get me through. Actually looking for a new pair of those! Any socks so long as they come to the knee, a big dark pair of mens cargo pants with LOADS of pockets and maybe a zip off knee or capri or both. A belt with a cool buckle (that has a tendency to change) a fitted tee shirt (often my fashion victim shirt) a big floppy coat with even more pockets that comes to about 3/4 length, a long skinny Dr.Who scarf, my fleece old lady hat and I'd trade out my prescription lenses (and eyes) for a pair of sunglasses.
At this point I would feel like the coolest old bugger in the world!
I loved this post Natasha! Thank you and thanks everyone else for sharing your outfits!

Live, Love, Laugh, Write! said...

I think in some cases wearing our pajamas would be great (I certainly love too!) but the nude sleepers would make things a bit risque :P

Amanda Fall - Sprout editor said...

What a fun and feel-good post. :) Natasha, I just loved seeing you in your favorite outfit.

The funny thing is, the more I thought about it, I kind of WISH I had more opportunity to dress up. I love what I do (full-time freelancing from home, at the moment), but I miss that "wow" factor when I have to wear schlumpy clothes all day that are basically paint-catchers. ;) Oh well, the benefits are definitely worth it.