A few years ago, I was grocery shopping in four-inch heels when a woman told me I was brave to wear them to the supermarket. I took it as a compliment, although by the time I got to the frozen foods, I thought she might have a point.
I think of her sometimes when I look around a restaurant or a theater and realize how seldom I see women dressed the way I used to imagine dressing when I was younger. A skirt suit, a pair of pumps, a little lipstick and earrings that move when you turn your head. I used to see versions of that outfit on women who were simply going to work. These days, if I put on the whole ensemble for dinner, I sometimes feel as though I should be carrying a bouquet.
Of course, women still dress up. I just see fewer occasions where dressing up is what everyone expects to do. And I can see the appeal of that. If I had spent years wearing pantyhose because the office expected it, I might have celebrated the first summer I could go bare-legged. I get to put mine on because I like the way they look. There’s a world of difference between those two trips to the hosiery drawer.
There’s also a small irony for those of us who learned how to dress by watching women. I spent years noticing how a woman walked in heels or what she wore with a pencil skirt. Now, if my aim is to blend in at Stop & Shop, I’d probably do better to study the woman in jeans and sneakers reaching for the same brand of coffee.
But sometimes I want to wear the pencil skirt. I spent enough years waiting for Halloween to come around, and I’d hate to go back to waiting for the calendar to tell me what I could wear. Dinner out is occasion enough for me, even if it’s Tuesday and I’m the only one at the table wearing a dress.
Besides, I have earrings that deserve to see the inside of a restaurant.
 |
| Jorge Enrique Abello femulating on Colombian television's En los tacones de Eva. |
