And Now For Something Completely Different!

voltee ♦ December 2, 2010 ♦ 4 Comments

Item: Jacket/Tunic Color/Fabric: Beige/cream, cotton ( excluding rhinestones) Designer: True Meaning Where Purchased: Neiman Marcus Years Owned: 4
I have always loved rhinestones. I remember sifting my fingers through the buttons in my Grandma’s button tin as a little girl, relishing the varied textures of the buttons, and occasionally turning up a stray rhinestone.
It was like panning for gold.
These were the vintage rhinestones, the kind with a little heft to them, not these cheap flimsy things with prongs that bend in an instant that they pass as rhinestones these days. The old ones had substance!
Once finding a loose rhinestone, I would eagerly flip it over and appraise the back of the tiny thing, looking for evidence of paint. Looking to see if it was, in fact, a rhinestone.
Because I believed with my whole heart that it was entirely possible for a real diamond to somehow end up tumbling around in the buttons somehow, like the Ugly Duckling. It would be an astonishingly easy mistake to make.
An overworked factory worker bends her battered fingers to squeeze minuscule rhinestones into their tiny settings. She is so very tired that she does not notice that she has started to pull stones from the bottle labeled “Diamonds”.
“You fool!” The rich, pompous factory owner bellows at the end of the night. “I set my Diamond Bottle down for five minutes, and you mix them into the rhinestones?? Idiot! Now march straight to my diamond mine and fetch me more diamonds! And no, you will not get overtime!!”
This seems like a completely plausible, highly logical, even, scenario if you are the type of child who enjoys playing with buttons.
My point was only that this jacket-type garment has rhinestones on it.
I don’t think that I’ve given this thing a fair shake at all. It was something that I ordered online at Neiman Marcus during a big sale. Did I need to have such a thing? Of course not. I’m not even really sure just exactly what it is. Did it make my heart stop beating because it was so amazingly, jaw droppingly beautiful? No. It was unusual, and it was on sale, like REALLY on sale, and so I clicked “Buy.” Do I believe that it is dangerous to buy things online? Yes. But also exhilarating and wow, what a time saver!
Sometimes, though, you end up with things that you don’t hate enough to send back, but don’t exactly love, either, and aren’t entirely sure what to do with.
That’s the situation I found myself in with this piece.
I think I have only worn this once or twice. There was a moment when I thought someone might wear it in Pippin, but it just didn’t work out.
The time I know for sure that I wore this was on Christmas Day. What I’m not sure of is which one. I think four years ago.
For all of my life that I can remember, my dad’s extended family has celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day. And for many years now it has been the one time of the year that I get to see many of my aunts, cousins, second cousins, and their children, which may or may not be my third cousins. I forget how these things work. Family, though, whatever the name.
I have an astounding family. We are numerous, and we run the gamut of professions and personalities and opinions, and yet there is a common thread running through us all. I can’t describe it further, I just know that it’s there and always will be. I love our family chemistry. And I am amazed and honored to have such courage, strength, and talent among my relatives.
Christmas Day in my Aunt Pat’s basement has formed some of my most poignant memories ever. Too many to enumerate tonight.
Our celebrations haven’t been as consistent in recent years, and I have not heard yet if there will be any kind of gathering this year or not.
I hope so. I miss too many people.
Anyway, the jacket/tunic. I feel like I just haven’t tried hard enough to figure out how to wear this. I was so surprised by how beautiful I found it. The embroidery is quite lovely, and so is the lace. And of course, the rhinestones! I guess I haven’t looked at it up close in a while. I think it looks very becoming on Trixie! But she has no bottom half, which is always what snares me up, let’s face it.

**I am fascinated by this piece, but I’m still not sure if it should stay. I need advice.