Sometimes these things work backwards. Sometimes you put something on and you need to unpack the subliminal influences that inspired it. Why? Because you’re me and you have nothing better to do than overanalyze the shit you wear. Duh. Take this little number, one of my recent faves:
I couldn’t really get a good picture of it, now that Lauraloo, my primary photographer, has gone off to the fruit farm. In her absence, I’m experimenting with new angles like bird’s eye view:
and this one depicting me as I pay my respects at the clothes chair, where outfits go to die:
Aaaaanyway, this lacy white concoction made me think of that scene from She’s Out of Control, the 1989 comedy starring TV zensation Tony Danza as a father who is cursed with a really, really hot daughter. You know the scene right? Because all of you have seen this movie? It’s taught in most post-WWII American film courses. Haven’t any of you ever taken a film class???
Seriously though, it’s actually a piece of crap, except for this one scene where Tony Danza comes home from his business trip to find his newly hot and dateable daughter (makeover montage!!!!) walking down the stairs in slow motion to Frankie Avalon singing “Venus”. Check it out at 4:01-4:45 on this clip (but don’t watch the rest…it WILL ruin your life):
Hot right? Come on girls, don’t act like you don’t ALWAYS wear exclusively white outfits on all of your first dates.
Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that my all white experiment was shockingly similar to the dress I wore at my first communion. Oh, first communion, when little girls get to wear mini wedding dresses while consuming the body of Christ for the first time…a preparation for one’s wedding night in so many ways.
And who could forget the 1992 first communion fashions? So poofy and over the top with their puffed shoulders and full tulle skirts. I, however, opted for a simpler silhouette with a chic lace overlay for that fateful day, throughout which I acted out the aforementioned scene many, many times.
The moral of this story is two fold. Little girls don’t often get to wear their first communion dresses twice, but if you pick the right one, it will inspire them to look awesome well into their twenties. And as anyone who remembers Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring 2007 Couture collection knows (check it out! http://nymag.com/fashion/fashionshows/2007/spring/main/europe/couturerunway/jeanpaulgaultier/), Jesus’s crew got great style.
(Thanks for the pics Ali-Z, you look awesome!).
We Look Awesome 
1) That Jean Paul Gautier collection is crazy, I didn’t know martyrdom, etc. could be so stylish!
2) I hadn’t thought of Holy Communion in a long time, and with a cursory Google search, I could not find a lot of history on the dress/veil, but this is an interesting summation: http://www.osv.com/OSV4MeNav/Sacraments/TheEucharist/HowtoMakeaFirstCommunionVeil/tabid/494/Default.aspx
But it is not really a ’50s influence: http://www.costumegallery.com/Religious/girls/1stCommunion/page1.htm
It is interesting if we think of little girls marrying Christ before their future, corporeally mortal, husbands, like they are nuns who really do marry Christ. Sounds like polyandry.
3) I like your dress, and if you can find more religious connotations in your daily wardrobe, I salute you.
Oh gawd, Kim. I just watched the Tony Danza clip. Great bit of sleuthing/connecting on your part. Lisa’s comment about nuns marrying Christ is interesting, too. It made me think of some philosopher’s belief that women can’t technically have male muses, in the Dante-and-Beatrice sort of way…but as a consolation prize, we can have Christ as our muse. I dunno about that, but gotta get me some white knee-highs.
Hi,i am 21 and catholic.Iwas born a premmie and had problems the first year of my life,so i was never baptized.we moved twice,then my dad started having health problems.my parents finially had me baptized at age 14 at easter vigil.I was dressed in the traditional white,poofy midthigh length baptism dress with a matching bonnet,white tights and patent leather shoes.I wore the traditional white cloth baptism diaper,plastic pants under my tights with a white tee shirt tucked into the waist.I made my first holy communion with the little kids a month later and wore my baptism dress with the communion veil,gloves,lace anklets and the shoes.just like the little girls i wore my cloth baptism diaper and plastic pants and under shirt under the dress.I felt really cute and little girlish in my outfit.a year later,my 13 year old cousin,Tina made her first communion and we let her wear my outfit also.since she was smaller than me,she wore toddler size plastic pants over the diaper.