I’ve been looking up pictures and articles on kimono, sewing, and costuming just ’cause… Well, dammit, the Internet can be worse than M&Ms! You know how it is, you go to find one bit of information, and that leads you to another, and before long, while you started out trying to figure out whether or not you wanted a lined kimono, you’re checking out the effects of Asian trade routes on the settlement of the New World.1
Anyway, I wound up checking out a lot of pictures of people modeling their kimono and other sewing projects and I have a request to make, especially the wonderful, creative women who knit and sew and model their creations on the Internet.
Stop fucking slouching!
Yes, I can see you have a flat bust and a big belly. Slouching won’t hide that. It just makes you look sloppy. And you, Madam with the unfashionably large boobs? Honey, we full figured gals only have one answer to that. Lift the chest, my dear, otherwise you look dumpy and beaten down. And you, the chick who is taller than your friends? Rounding the shoulders like that makes you look ashamed and awkward. Stoppit! Stand tall, darlin’.
It’s a bit of a peeve, because it seems to me the message is, “I’m trying to hide and diminish myself.” (Barring injury. I cannot imagine one can stand up straight easily when the back is thrown out, or some such!).
It does bring up an interesting thought, though. I recall my Nanny2 in her oh-so-gracious way at the beach commenting on a woman walking in front of us who was slouching. Between puffs of her unfiltered Chesterfields, she a red-laquered fingernail at the woman, scowled, and said, “Goddammit, why don’t people show any pride in themselves? I look like an old sea witch3, myself, but you’ll never catch me walking along like I’m expecting a kick!”
I do associate slouching with a lack of personal pride. <grin> So much so, that I don’t permit feeling unconfident to show in my posture.
1 I’ve heard rumors that there are people who actually can restrict a search only to the information for which they were looking. I’ve often wondered if I should start a support organization to help them get over it.
2 Maternal grandmother, not hired caretaker.
3She did, and not in a good way. Smoking and a lifetime of tanning dark doesn’t do much for your looks, and bless her heart, she didn’t have much to work with, anyway. I loved Nanny for her utter refusal to let the fact that she was not pretty in a culture that valued it stand in the way of her enjoying life. Much moxie, that lady.