Wife Dressing

We acquired this gem quite by accident at Angel's auctions last Saturday- (sorry for being slack on the blog writing- it's on my endless list of things-that-need-done) anyway, back to wife dressing.

Written in the 1950's by Anne Fogarty (who I never heard of, but who was quite famous in her day) it is a guide to being a well dressed wife. So far I have broken every one of her rules- things like 'no jeans in public', 'no pajamas in the kitchen', 'always carry a tote with spare: makeup, hose, shoes, scarves'.... while elegant advice, and I can happily fantasize about being well dressed... it's not happening right now. I love jeans, though I usually wear skirts. I don't have spare accessories in my tote, but I always have scissors, tape, lots of black pens and a sketchbook. I don't worry about pajamas in the kitchen because the beloved manz does all the cooking. But I do 'dress for eventualities'....

case in point: yesterday. Yesterday it was cold to start with, incredibly windy and muddy, and school not only lost power but had a bomb threat at the same time. This placed us all outside in the wind and the mud until they wrangled up enough buses to stick us on until we went home. The situation was complicated because *all* the schools in the area lost power at the same time and the county was dismissed.... because we share buses with the elementary school, usually they go home first, then us. That had to be scrambled because they had to move the elementary buses over to the high school so we wouldn't all freeze... that is, everyone but me, who was sensibly dressed for the season.

What was I wearing? a long double skirt over cotton leggings and cowboy boots, red thermal type long tshirt with a gray sweater, and my most awesomely warm winter sweater coat (hand knit wool from Peru with a hood, pockets and the wool is unprocessed so the lanolin makes it waterproof and wind proof), and my scarf-n-gloves the manz gave me at Christmas. I was warm and snug while those in 'professional dress' were freezing in the wind, struggling to stand in the mud in heels, keep their short skirts in place or their long pants out of the mud. Sometimes, unfashionable is good. very good.