Ann’s Fashion Fortunes

By Ann Rosenquist Fee

Pleasing gods, shearing sides

DEAR ANN: Recently on a new country radio station (not my usual listen, but I like to hear what’s out there), I swear I heard some lyrics about “you make thrift shop clothes look good.” Since when did thrift shopping become chic with the new country crowd? Should/can I feel offended?

DEAR READER: I mean, you can, if you want to fall into the petty ditch that’s always waiting off to the side of the high road. You wouldn’t be the first person to think they were some early adopter of a novel thing and then get all mad as soon as your thing is embraced by the masses. It’s normal but it’s also unproductive, and it can be so preoccupying that you’ll miss a chance to embrace your next new favorite thing, and your next one and your next one. And pretty soon bitterness overtakes you and you’re not even open-minded enough to browse radio stations.

I suggest you tune back into new country until you hear that song again, and see if you can muster up a more gracious and inclusive response. I have no doubt you’ll be rewarded by the thrift shop gods, the ones responsible for the amazing finds that got you addicted in the first place. Choose the petty route and I don’t even want to think about what their wrath might mean for your shopping life. Good luck.

DEAR ANN: I really want to enjoy wearing summer dresses all the time, as normal-day non-special-occasionwear, especially since we skipped a whole summer of getting to say “I love your dress” “no I love YOUR dress” to each other. But it’s hot, and when I go to get dressed I’m already pre-wilted, and I don’t feel dressy, I just feel like standing naked in front of a fan until it’s time to go to bed. Is this a failure of the climate or of my wardrobe? DEAR READER: It’s both, and you can address the entire situation by declaring and then fulfilling two simple commitments: 1) Wear the Yeah, no, you’re not imagining it. Undercuts are everywhere and they’re the hot new emblems of sapience. dresses whether you feel like it or not. This is how all creative practices take hold, through discipline that doesn’t wait around for the muse to strike. It’s like how writers talk about morning pages, where they sit down and write, first thing of the day, whether they have anything to say or not. “Just keep moving your hand,” is the mantra, which, transposed for personal style goes something like “just keep putting on one thing and then taking off whatever other thing is the first thing you notice” (not as catchy but you get the point). If you can adopt this as a daily practice, I guarantee your closet will start feeling more like a delightful toy box and less like an emotional traction chamber. 2) Buy nothing. Your personal consumer habits aren’t to blame for climate extremes, but you’re not making things better when you support the production of earthunfriendly dyes and fabrics and transportation of those things and and and. So just don’t. Consider it part of your creative muscle-building to work with what you’ve got. Embrace these two commitments and you’ll find yourself drifting through the rest of summer neither wilted nor naked in front of a fan, but decisive and inspired and dressed.

DEAR ANN: Is it just me, or does everybody have a fresh undercut right now, and not the 2015 version just above the nape, but on the sides? Why is this happening and why does it look so right?

DEAR READER: Oh, it’s definitely happening, and while I don’t have sufficient data to say for sure — see photo montage, which represents three (3) subjects I personally encountered in one (1) day across two (2) zip codes, which may not be a scientifically valid study this but it’s not nothing — I suspect it has to do with intentionally embracing the unintentional unwanted home haircut situation that was our shared style experience last year. None of those DIY shearings gave us the looks we wanted, yet there was something thrilling about a style that conveyed our emotional state more so than it flattered our faces.

The 2021 undercut may be the first artifact of pandemic recovery — living evidence of lessons learned and incorporated into some deeply examined post-lockdown lives. Congratulations on your astute observation of this phenomenon. And if an undercut calls to you, feel free to answer with a bold and enlightened “yes.”

Got a question? Submit it at annrosenquistfee.com (click on Ann’s Fashion Fortunes). Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and host of Live from the Arts Center, a music and interview show Thursdays 1-2 p.m. on KMSU 89.7FM.