You know those outfits when you feel like you, but, like, superhero you? Like, you have to check if you are actually wearing a cape because, goddamn, you feel so good you could fly?
Well, I think I finally stumbled on my “superhero outfit.” It’s a pantsuit. And at first, I hated them.
My first connotation of pantsuits are the 80s and Thierry Mugler’s suites with double the shoulders, no waist and pleated pants. Paired with a blouse that had way, way too much fabric… everywhere.
It was the working girl era and something about it always seemed too forced to me. I mean, everything about the 80s was forced, particularly one’s hair.
Enter the 90s and Hillary Clinton. Yes, by now Hillary has sartorially claimed pantsuits as her look, but let’s not forget, before said pantsuit, Hillary was rocking a headband and bangs. Ahhh good times.
But nothing about Hillary’s pantsuits did it for me. She wears them in bright colors and often with the jacket buttoned up to her neck. I respected that she had found her look, but I couldn’t see it as mine.
Then a few months back we ran this piece on Claire Thomson Jonville’s collaboration with Pallas and I swooned like a baby in a bassinet. I’d never seen something so…me.
Yes, it was a pantsuit but it was deconstructed in a way, it didn’t read as “tuxedo” or “pantsuit.” It read as, “cool-girl-picks-up-clothes-from-floor-and-walks-out-of-house-like-this.”
A few weeks later I put together my own version of that Pallas collaboration with black J.Crew tuxedo pants, a black tuxedo jacket from Zadig & Voltaire, a white Hanes t-shirt and yellow sneakers.
I was fucking flying — and Christina even said so. Okay, she said she really liked this look on me which made me feel like I was flying.
RuPual said, “We’re all born naked, and everything else is drag.” I repeat this to myself every time I think I’m putting too much thought into my sartorial choices. When I want to throw my hands up and say, “it doesn’t matter,” I remind myself that it’s okay that it does matter because it’s your drag, it’s your superhero costume.
We can’t always be in the safe space of home, but we can be in the safe space of a good outfit. It’s amazing what a little bit of armor (or spandex) can do for you as you navigate the world.
It’s home month here at the Atelier, and I’d love to know, what clothes make you feel most at home?