The special CiB meme ‘Xmas in books, accompanied by carefully chosen pictures’ is back!
Every December on the blog I feature Xmas scenes and Xmas books – I never seem to run out, but am still open to ideas and suggestions.
If you use Pinterest you can see some of the beautiful seasonal pictures on this page, and you can find (endless!) more Xmas books via the labels at the bottom of the page
Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe
published 2019
[Lizzie works in a dental practice, and is hearing about a social event]
‘It’s the [dentists’] Annual Winter Dinner Dance’, said JP.
‘It’s always on the second Monday of December,’ said Tammy.
‘It’s officially the most Christmassy night of the year, bar Christmas Eve, and we get the Tuesday off!’
‘OK,’ I said, quite excited at the thought of attending a dinner dance, dressing up, maybe dancing with a lovely dentist… ‘Is it a dressy occasion?’
‘Very,’ said Tammy.
‘I should say so,’ agreed JP…
[Lizzie goes shopping]
[Boutique-owner April] pulled out a wraparound dress called the Ossie...
At home I got the Ossie out of the bag and regretted it immediately. April had warned me that this might happen – ‘Buying an expensive dress can feel like getting pregnant,’ she’d said. ‘You thought it was what you wanted but in the cold light of day, it’s truly terrifying’.
I did realize, though, in the freedom of my own flat, that wraparound dresses only look nice when you’re standing still, inside, and looking at yourself face on. In the real world, the dress opens and your leg slides out as you walk and therefore you have to lean slightly forward holding the flap closed with a finger and thumb around mid-thigh.
My mother said ‘holding a dress closed’ was itself a ‘look’ and came from the 1960s when suddenly people were wearing sexy dresses in non-sexy places and had to hold them shut.
comments: The clothes in Nina Stibbe’s books are always marvellous, and give me many happy hours searching for images – see some of the earlier posts for splendid fashion pics, and for an explanation of why I think she is a great writer. This book, too, is entertaining and hilarious, but also real and thought-provoking.
Her descriptions of the late 70s and early 80s are spot on: I think a combination of a great memory and good research. It’s an era I remember well, and I am always criticizing writers for getting details wrong, or the money wrong, but Stibbe is unimpeachable.
There was a certain look that I liked, which fitted with the attractive but not-too-keen [look recommended by a friend]; this was the busy city woman, dashing around in coloured trousers and chunky but short sweaters (mustard, burgundy and dark green) and leather boots, carrying things, lots of things, bags and picture frames, and almost dropping them but laughing as if slightly shocked and so forth, and wearing hats, floppy hats, caps, trilbies etc.Well yes that is how people wanted to look – see the adverts for Charlie perfume of the time, and fashion mag pictures like these. Her friend warns, by the way: ‘Hats are good but not a trilby or other women will hate you’.
‘Holding it closed’ – 25 years ago a young woman called Cathy visited me on a sunny spring afternoon: she was a nanny and had brought her two young charges with her. When she arrived said ‘that was mortifying – I bought a new wrap skirt for summer yesterday, and the wind was blowing so hard the skirt was up around my waist, and I was holding the children’s hands so couldn’t hold it down, it was awful!’ Oh we can take care of the journey home, I said, and went off to find some safety pins. She stood up and I helpfully started pinning the skirt closed. Suddenly there was some harrumphing and coughing from Cathy as I worked my way down her leg. ‘Well I don’t want it TOO closed up’ she said, ‘we want to flash a bit of leg as we go along’. So I had to take out some of the safety pins…
I wrote about this book earlier in the year, and in that post you can find Lizzie’s mother’s very sweet way of reassuring her that the dress is fine.However…you are already presuming correctly that the evening is not going to go at all well (and you won’t predict just how badly wrong). For that reason I have given Lizzie a lovely Versace 1980s dress, top picture – much nicer, I imagine, than the Ossie, I wanted her to have something good. The other evening dress is from a fashion mag of the time: you could make it yourself and wear it as either a skirt of a dress. Yes really.
Tammy the dental receptionist is going to wear a fake Halston jumpsuit – here is the real thing.
My exact feeling about wrap dresses. Tried one once (I made it myself) and decided never again. I feel the same way about jump suits. Curse these styles!
ReplyDeleteI never feel quite secure in a wrap dress. They are recommended for a body shape to which they are wholly unsuited if I may say so. And as for jumpsuits - I have read a number of articles in the past year about their fashion forwardness and how wonderful and easy they are - without ever reading a single mention of the way in which they are the worst garment ever. I think we all know what I'm talking about.
DeleteAsos once described a jumpsuit as "worth sitting half-naked on the toilet for", which is unusually honest...
DeleteThe best and most honest marketing line I ever saw!
DeleteLike Lynn, I made a wrap dress once, and lived to regret it. It would NOT stay wrapped! I do have a wrap skirt for summer, but it's a huge gauzy thing and it never unravels on me.
ReplyDeleteThere was a certain look that I liked, which fitted with the attractive but not-too-keen [look recommended by a friend]; this was the busy city woman, dashing around in coloured trousers and chunky but short sweaters (mustard, burgundy and dark green) and leather boots, carrying things, lots of things, bags and picture frames, and almost dropping them but laughing as if slightly shocked and so forth, and wearing hats, floppy hats, caps, trilbies etc.
That look just says 70's to me and I love when it's well-done.
A wrap will only work if it has voluminous amounts of material, as you say, and gauzy material like yours will work, but with anything else it's either too skimpy or too heavy. That is my important opinion!
DeleteYes, I loved that description of the look of the time - it so very much summoned up a way of dressing. And it was practical but attractive, a pleasure and easy to wear, and based on women's convenience, not some idea of luring men in.
It was the line "...dancing with a lovely dentist" that tipped me off that this evening might not go anywhere remotely lovely.
ReplyDeleteHaha, yes, I had my misgivings about that one too… :-) It's not that there is anything wrong with a dentist as such, but the idea of dancing with "a lovely dentist" rather than with "a lovely man" (who may be a dentist or anything he likes, as long as he is primarily a lovely man) is rather a red flag. Great turn of phrase.
DeleteSusan and Birgitta: you are both so right. It is part of Stibbe's cleverness that she can make us see at once this is not going to happen. 'Dancing with a lovely dentist' is a wonderful phrase.
DeleteA reference to Ossie Clark, obviously - the British king of 1970s wrap dresses! So if it was an Ossie Clark then it was a super ni dress by the standards of the time, although the Radley versions were obviously much more affordable. 70s wrap dresses also come from Diane von Fürstenberg, and you often read gushing claims from swivel-eyed, manic fashionistas who haven't so much as looked at the history of 20th century fashion or even as far back as the 18th century, that Diane magically invented the wrap dress in such a way that she miraculously uninvented everyone else's very similar dress designs going back decades before her wrap. As fantastic as a von Fürstenberg wrap is, the hyperbole around her being this great inventor is off the charts. I do discuss the wrap quite a bit in Fashion in the 1970s!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see the blog back, I was missing my regular read!
Lovely to hear from you Daniel, and thank you for the kind words - and thanks also for the fashion history.
DeleteYes, I immediately thought of Ossie Clark. I think of Radley as his diffusion line, is that right? Still quite expensive enough for me: my first major fancy fashion purchase was a Radley dress, and it seemed like a massive investment of my hard-earned cash, but I loved that dress... moss crepe with lots of little covered buttons. It screams 1970s. In fact you can see it on the blog here
http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cuckoos-calling-by-robert-galbraith_19.html and you might be interested in the mention of Ossie in that book/post.
Ah, yes, the obligatory office Christmas party! Plenty of those in fiction, Moira, and this one sounds like a good 'un. And those particular fashions! Gotta love 'em... I love the description of what it's like to buy an expensive dress, too. I don't think I've ever had one like that, but I know the feeling with one or two things I've gotten....
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot - I do love an office Christmas party in fiction: not quite so sure about real life! And of course as well as the clothes, I do love to feature descriptions of how people feel when they covet, plan, choose and buy them...
DeleteI bought a wrap around skirt when I first started work - pink and white checked cheesecloth. I felt very 'with it', but my father took one look at me and asked if tablecloths were all the rage...! I never wore it again!
ReplyDeleteHow very cutting! I think parents assume their children take no notice of their views, so don't edit, but actually children often do..
DeleteAmazingly, I found the e-book edition for $2.99 at Amazon and bought it immediately. Too bad that An Almost Perfect Christmas is priced much higher as that sounds very good. Still not the biggest fan of e-books but hope to give it at try anyway.
ReplyDeleteOh great! Hope you enjoy Tracy. Sometimes the ebook is the only way to get what you want.
Delete