Le Gatsby
Le Gatsby
Back in January, this year, I was introduced to the American Club of Paris by way of attending the luncheon for Jamie Beck’s New York Times best selling book, "An American in Provence". The luncheon took place in a gorgeous location: Cercle de l'Union Interalliée, in Paris. While I've not yet officially joined, but I do hope to. I’m on the email list they have for other events. The most recent caught my eye: Le Gatsby cocktails hour(s)18:30-20:30 in Paris. I was in! I love dressing up and almost before I finished checking out on line I was flipping through a mental catalogue of what I could wear from my closet, and how I could modify what I have for the still cool temperature on what would be the first day of Spring.
Dust shimmered in the rays of light in my closet as I pushed the plastic hangers on the metal rod in my closet that have seen mostly darkness for, too long. I imagined myself in the room at the aforementioned luncheon wearing a period costume, and for two full hours to live in the 1920’s in Paris, pretending that nothing was ever going to be different than it was for that 10-ish year stretch.
I have my 2 piece and stunner that I made for my friend’s September Sackets Harbor wedding back in 2015. Going father back in the closet was my dress ensemble made for my 30th birthday. Teal silk bias dress with beaded neckline, and a green cotton lace over-slip from a piece of material I bought in Italy, a lifetime ago.
Beach Wedding
Silk and lace ensemble I designed and crafted in 2015
Then I remembered I had the perfect dress. The dress my mom made for me when I was 15-ish for a Prom. It is a light olive green poly sheer organza lined with a similar color green poly satin. Low waist-ed with a bias band which was help up by my bum, and two layers of a circle skirt which were cut into points and gold sequin trim added to the bottom of each later showcasing the flapper-esque angles of this era. My mom copied the pattern by looking from far away at the actual 1920's dress made out of sheer silk that was for sale at Boom Babies in Syracuse, NY, it hunk far up on a wall as a precious item, not really to be worn, but only to seen as an object from the past.
THE DRESS!
Original dress made by my mom in 1991 inspired by a vintage 1920’s dress we saw. Shown here with pinned neckline modification.
It still fits, maybe a bit more snug around the bum. My chest never grew past the triangle training bras, almost seven years of eating pretty healthy food in France with less additives, and a sprinkle of stress that I've been under, particularly since early 2021, well, c’est la vie. Some times thirty years later the dress still fits. However I wanted to make some changes to it. The front neckline was relatively high as it wasn't long after my first heart surgery that my mom made me this dress, so the hight of the neckline was to cover the redness of the scar. Twenty-five years after my second surgery, the scar is ever present, but much lighter.
First thing I did was to make a list of what I needed to complete the outfit for a first day of Spring; dress adjustment, wanted long gloves, needed headdress. Shoes and bag, I have. I quickly looked on line for gloves and only found black which were 300 euros. So, nope, that wasn't going to happen. The head dress would be easy enough, but I really wanted to modify the dress first and coordinate all else later.
I cut out the lining of the dress to give me a bit more space to move and to give it more the drape-y vintage feel. I modified a necklace as well and starting to pile up my mannequin with the accessories.
I wanted a lace piece for the front cut I was going to make and headed to the Red Cross in Sceaux.
As if I manifested it, a lace top was placed top of a wrack so I didn't even have to look for it, and then I saw a light pink old cardigan sweater which my brain immediately made into long sleeveless gloves. I snatched them up for a total of 7 euros & washed them my hand.
Sunday I essentially dedicated to making is all come together. I hand stitched the parts of the dress that came open, I worked on the base of the head dress, and I added more gold paint to the feathers I had and searched though my Jewelry drawers for pins to make it special.
Tuesday morning came and all I need to do was to decide which finding to use on the head dress. Before the event I was to pick up Simon Van Booy's new book The American Library in Paris ordered and I was to borrow. And I realized the cocktail event was close by. Then more light bulbs in my head and I check the address, and then back to the initial e-mail. I realized how much my brain got carried away with the word Gatsby! I had all these ideas of what it would be like, but my dress images ran away with the sequins, so to speak.
I truly laughed at myself. I mean, really laughed at myself. So often, I have found myself in the situation of having a much more fun time dressing up for an event than actually attending the event.
As I have thought about how I would post my little transformations over the past couple of day, in addition to needing to deal with very real life consequential stuff, such as currently being very passive progressively bullied by a neighbor. I've been thinking about how much we make these quick snap judgements on events, people, places, things. I read quickly and I moved quickly. And for the 'ending' of the story on the Gatsy event, I was able to simply laugh about it with the hosts, and they mentioned that it would be a fun event to have a costume party, and in fact I was not the only one who had ever come to this monthly cocktail event in period costume. What a relief. I'm feeling like these are my people!
I did need to do a 360 on my attire for the evening, I still dressed up, but in a more easy casual way by wearing my very old bias silk dress I bought I don't even remember where second hand, which has been dyed in indigo to cover a stain. I wore a beautiful two-tones sweater from Cotélac which has been one of my favorite sweaters now for 3-4 years running. For cocktail glitz I threw on a vintage Ann Taylor rhinestone necklace that seemed to be the hit of the party and a great conversational piece.
Back to the reflective moral of the story: I was lucky this time to laugh at myself and really, had I showed up in costume would it have mattered? Not really. It would have been the best conversation starter ever, which maybe is what I need help with as an introvert. The flip side of not reading things fully, or snap judgements at one look, or one interaction is that you can become either a victim or the culprit of some very unfortunate viewpoints. I did a meta meditation this morning and it helped a lot. (and Am I also frustrated that going forward we have to qualify Meta as a company or one of the most profound ways to meditate for the greater good? You betcha!)
Spring rain has started here today in Sceaux in between blips of piercing sunlight.
I sign off with this, wishing all a happy Friday, and that you may have time to reflect into a deeper surface that one word, image or nationality that passes you before you make a judgment, or worse, action(s) with reproductions.
Namaste
