Time to fix my sewing machine, make my own clothes again. Had this realization- I just can’t do chain stores any more. In Cape Town, there are chains of clothing shops. I opened an account at one nearly fifteen years ago- broke, getting married, needed to buy shoes. Bought those Doc’s, and paid, paid, paid. Once you are paying, you have to buy clothes using the same account, until when the clerk asks ‘How much would you like to pay?’ you are tearing the very soul from your being and casting it down before her.
So any clothing I need, I trawl very dodgy crap stores, trying to find something that won’t give me electric shocks on escalators. Crappy chains- you can find them across South Africa. I see people on the train wearing the same shirt occasionally.
The problem is this- several times, and I am not exaggerating- I have watched the news- footage of drug dealers and murderers and other nasties- and had the same horrible feeling as I notice something. As they are being dragged into courtrooms from the prison van, jacket over their head, I see that they clearly have the same taste and budget as me- they are wearing the same shirt, t-shirt, trousers…
I’m not kidding. It is a lousy feeling! Watching the SA movie ‘Tsotsi’, which won an Oscar, the main character was a gangsta-killer. He was wearing EXACTLY the same red skinny-rib long sleeved t-shirt I bought at Mr Price, and wore to the movie…
I am not a hillbilly, criminal, miscreant. (Well- not any more!) Although my sister-in-law slept over the other day. I was on the couch. OK?
So I have to do designer-wear, but can’t afford to, so I’ll have to get back to my roots- interfacing, pleats, button-holes and stitching. I can do that. Cut patterns, do hems, sew on collars. I studied it during a bad year- I treated it as a gap year, but was actually studying clothing design. I dropped out, but it’s like falling off a bicycle- you pick it up easily again. (Except with all the needles and jutting bobbins, you don’t want to fall off a sewing machine).
But I will never, ever make another pair of tartan trousers with matching waistcoat again (see above pic- note cowboy shoestring tie). I have matured…
So any clothing I need, I trawl very dodgy crap stores, trying to find something that won’t give me electric shocks on escalators. Crappy chains- you can find them across South Africa. I see people on the train wearing the same shirt occasionally.
The problem is this- several times, and I am not exaggerating- I have watched the news- footage of drug dealers and murderers and other nasties- and had the same horrible feeling as I notice something. As they are being dragged into courtrooms from the prison van, jacket over their head, I see that they clearly have the same taste and budget as me- they are wearing the same shirt, t-shirt, trousers…
I’m not kidding. It is a lousy feeling! Watching the SA movie ‘Tsotsi’, which won an Oscar, the main character was a gangsta-killer. He was wearing EXACTLY the same red skinny-rib long sleeved t-shirt I bought at Mr Price, and wore to the movie…
I am not a hillbilly, criminal, miscreant. (Well- not any more!) Although my sister-in-law slept over the other day. I was on the couch. OK?
So I have to do designer-wear, but can’t afford to, so I’ll have to get back to my roots- interfacing, pleats, button-holes and stitching. I can do that. Cut patterns, do hems, sew on collars. I studied it during a bad year- I treated it as a gap year, but was actually studying clothing design. I dropped out, but it’s like falling off a bicycle- you pick it up easily again. (Except with all the needles and jutting bobbins, you don’t want to fall off a sewing machine).
But I will never, ever make another pair of tartan trousers with matching waistcoat again (see above pic- note cowboy shoestring tie). I have matured…
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