Women in Clothes

by Sheila Heti

  KATE: You have to be there as a spiritual object, and that’s the hardest part. The clothing has to support you in being that thing. I really try to just listen to my physical body and see what it wants to wear.

  NELLIE: The fastenings took a long time to resolve. I’m still not sure they’re resolved.

  KATE: When I first wore the dress at said wedding, it fell off. I was topless coming out of the ceremony.

  NELLIE: The dress hung in my closet for many years. I was looking for the perfect zipper. I thought that would be ideal, if I could find a beautiful zipper. I just never found it.

  KATE: In all those years the dress didn’t change. It’s not like, oh you age and you need a different dress. It’s always the same dress you need. Maybe I’d like to cover my arms a little bit more now, but other than that it’s the same.

  NELLIE: We talked about putting hooks and eyes on it, but Kate thought it was too fussy. Now I think that would have been fine.

  KATE: Then she tried covered buttons and I was like, No no no. A lot of the process was her doing some really ravishingly beautiful work that I undid.

  NELLIE: I don’t know where it would go next, but everything that I make feels transitional. Nothing is ever finished.

  KATE: Thinking back to the initial impulse to make the dress, there was a moment in fashion that’s over now that I probably wanted to harness and copy. Before certain designers started making so much money on handbags, they made extremely sophisticated and sensitive and artful clothing. But I didn’t want to spend $3,000 on a dress. I just wanted to spend eight years.

  The eight-year dress.

  SURVEY I feel most attractive when. . . .

  When I’m alone. —GABRIELLE BELL • I feel most attractive when I’m alone. Specifically, I feel most attractive in front of a mirror, pouting and being lit in a specific way that shadows certain portions of my face. It is a personal dreamworld, without the scrutiny of anyone. —NORA PALEY • When I am staying at a hotel, on a trip, away from home and all its responsibilities and complications. —RITA TRONTI • When no one sees me, generally right before I go to sleep. —ELISSA SCHAPPELL • When I’m exercising. —NAOMI ALISA CALNITSKY • I feel at my most attractive after a run—like I’m strong and look really healthy. —DORETTA LAU • When I’ve spent a leisurely day outdoors, hiking, walking, gardening, and have showered and changed and am hanging out with my husband. —STEPHANIE WHITEHOUSE • I love the glow after exercise and the way that makes me feel. —POPPY TOLAND • After Bikram yoga class. —PEGGY BURNS • After I exercise my body well. —PAULINE SMOLIN • When I’m biking in shorts and a tank top, and I’m in full control of how I propel myself—how fast, how aggressively, and to what end. —SASHA PLOTNIKOVA • After a long run, I feel strong and attractive from the inside out. —MONICA McCLURE

  PROJECT

  THE OUTFIT IN THE PHOTOGRAPH | IV

  Fashion designer Rachel Comey and photographer Willy Somma have been friends since 1990. The two discuss Rachel’s outfits in pictures Willy has taken over the years.

  1

  RACHEL: Oh my god, what is that? I made that.

  WILLY: It’s an art piece.

  RACHEL: I kept it for years. It was really just to hang on a wall. Absurd. With a hole in it.

  WILLY: Isn’t it beautiful?

  RACHEL: I just wanted to see stripes with bows on top of them, I don’t know. I wanted to see fabric draping. It was before I made clothes.

  WILLY: It’s really more of a sculpture.

  RACHEL: I remember the first time I met you, at the University of Vermont. I got in your car—what year was that Cadillac?

  WILLY: It was an ’86 Fleetwood. An inheritance from my rock-’n’-roll dad.

  RACHEL: It was a huge-ass Cadillac. Anyway, you were adorably dressed as usual, and interesting, and there you were, driving your black Cadillac, and I just thought, “Who IS this girl?” I don’t think you remember meeting me that time.

  WILLY: I don’t. But I remember you being very certain about your ideas, which I found really inspiring, as they were always big ideas, big plans.

  RACHEL: I had big plans to get outta Dodge. You have to have some kind of dream.

  WILLY: I remember one of the first times I went to your house and looking through your closet of vintage clothes, going through every single thing and analyzing it. We’d pick apart the things that were good about it, the things that weren’t, put it on, decide what kind of girl would wear it and for what reason. We were there for hours. Hours and hours.

  •

  2

  RACHEL: That’s my Ferrari jacket. Nylon.

  WILLY: And some kind of necklace.

  RACHEL: Looks like I have hat head, hair dyed black.

  WILLY: You had another nylon jacket, a red one, that I used to borrow a lot. It was amazing. It was your Joan Jett jacket, though on me it looked less Joan Jett, more Blondie.

  RACHEL: Looks like we’re on the Lower East Side somewhere. I think in those days I was just trying things out.

  WILLY: But it wasn’t just tough; under it you were wearing a blue button-down ruffle blouse.

  •

  3

  RACHEL: Bill Cunningham took my picture that night.

  WILLY: It was at the Whitney Biennial.

  RACHEL: I still have that mini-hat. I hadn’t heard of Cunningham. It was in the paper the next week and someone told me about it. He was a hat designer originally, so he loves a hat. Wills, what did you wear that night?

  WILLY: Oh god, I don’t know. I was really into yellow tights during that period.

  RACHEL: You were a mastermind of color. To this day. I remember always being really blown away by your color mixes. Crazy palettes. Beautiful.

  WILLY: But what was I thinking with yellow tights? I was going for mod ’60s but it was more like, Hello bumblebee.

  RACHEL: Well, you probably had a lavender leather skirt on.

  •

  4

  WILLY: Mona the two-legged dog was part of your wardrobe in those days.

  RACHEL: That was my most expensive purchase ever. A Tracey Feith dress. My dog is tied to my waist, on my most expensive dress, with a piece of ribbon.

  •

  5

  RACHEL: I don’t know where I saw this cape originally, but I special-ordered it. I had to wait months for it and I saved up for it. Yellow pigskin. Wore it quite a bit. Had an unfinished hem. I think this was at a Bad Seeds concert.

  •

  6

  WILLY: I actually think this is my dress.

  RACHEL: What dress?

  WILLY: That vintage dress from the ’40s.

  RACHEL: Pretty.

  WILLY: Seemed to work with your mustache.

  •

  7

  WILLY: This one is amazing, Rachel.

  RACHEL: Oh. My. God. Can you see what’s happening there?

  WILLY: It’s tags. Hang tags.

  RACHEL: I had a tagging gun and I tagged it.

  WILLY: Look, you also did it in the background.

  RACHEL: That was a canvas I tagged. It was all the clothes I bought that year. All Salvation Army. The whole year I retagged. And just kept going and tagged the sweater, also bought at the Salvation Army.

  WILLY: And you had a crazy leather belt. Was it attached to the pants?

  RACHEL: I think it was. Nice color palette, yellow, brown, and olive. Remember I made that other dress where I got latex from Canal Rubber. I made latex tags and used the tagging gun and tagged a cocktail dress. Who knows what’s up with my hair.

  WILLY: You were really into wearing your hair in a pompadour for a while.

  RACHEL: That looks good on me. I should do that more often. To get away from these eyebrows.

  •

  8

  RACHEL: Where did those jugs come from?

  WILLY: Seems to be what this photo is all about.

  RACHEL: I was probably experimenting with some undergarments too. I think that’s a feather hat. I use
d to carry a plastic bag around as my handbag. I look so young and fresh.

  WILLY: I think those are Alpana Bawa pants.

  RACHEL: Oh yeah. I love Alpana Bawa. All Indian-dyed, made in India.

  WILLY: Really, really interesting, colorful fabrics. All ethnic, used to be on First and First.

  RACHEL: But all these style tips I got from you and Rachel Grady and all the girls here in New York before I moved here. They’d just tell me where to go and I would go there. Rachel Grady told me—I’ll never forget it—that in high school she cut the tops of her Converse All Stars off and then safety-pinned them back onto the soles and wore them like that. I was like, That is pretty much just the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. And then Heather Hernan, she used to take Esprit labels out of her garments and sew them onto the outside of other garments. She’d “Esprit-ize.”

  •

  9

  WILLY: This was in Maine, 2002.

  RACHEL: That trench coat was so versatile. You could wear it out and it could be dark and moody, or you could wear it on an island in Maine. The thing about this trench coat was the proportion. I think it was a kid’s trench coat. It was small.

  WILLY: You didn’t customize it?

  •

  10

  WILLY: You were SO into that shirt.

  RACHEL: I love it. You’ve had to bite your tongue all these years. “Man, you were really into that shirt!”

  WILLY: No! I loved that shirt too and tried to borrow it on numerous occasions.

  RACHEL: It was that really slippery polyester.

  WILLY: And you were wearing polka-dot white tights, red shoes, a white skirt, and black gloves.

  •

  11

  WILLY: This was one of my beginning stabs at portraiture, I was experimenting with lighting people indoors and you posed for me in your apartment on Elizabeth Street. You had your workshop in that room. It was that time in our lives of, Here’s me “the photographer” taking a portrait of my friend Rachel “the designer.” When we were just starting to inhabit those roles, even if it still felt kind of abstract.

  RACHEL: I made that top. So this was after I started the women’s line. I remember that table.

  •

  12

  WILLY: Isn’t that great? Look at this amazing thing.

  RACHEL: I got that in Brighton Beach. I’m in the back of a cab. The shawl would dazzle up any old cheap outfit.

  WILLY: This isn’t your usual look.

  RACHEL: But in those days we’d change several times a day.

  •

  13

  WILLY: You were really into making watch-fob necklaces back then.

  RACHEL: I kinda look hot. This kitty-cat shirt was from—this is embarrassing—from a field trip with my Ultimate Frisbee team, somewhere in the South one spring break and I reshaped it.

  •

  14

  WILLY: Look at your braids with the bathing suit. It’s pretty awesome. Come on, you look amazing.

  RACHEL: The suit’s Norma Kamali. She’s so cool. Rob Pruitt gave me that towel.

  WILLY: You were really proud of purchasing that suit.

  RACHEL: Hell yeah, it’s a good suit.

  WILLY: That was the two-second moment when you were single. Not even, really.

  •

  15

  RACHEL: That’s my own dress. I think this is between breakups. I look thinner.

  WILLY: Yep. You look very skinny. And you have two drinks.

  •

  16

  WILLY: This is Todd’s fiftieth.

  RACHEL: I love that dress, actually. It’s a dress where we got the cutting ticket wrong in the factory. The underlayer was made out of sheer mesh and the skirt had a flap front and back, so we made a matching panty. It was a happy accident.

  COLLECTION

  TANIA VAN SPYK’s dress sets part II

  SURVEY

  Tryntje Kramer

  Tryntje Kramer (née Elgersma) was born in 1919 in Friesland, the Netherlands. She lives in Grimsby, Ontario, in Shalom Manor nursing home. She was a homemaker and was married to Juke Kramer, who died seven years ago. —KRISTIN SJAARDA

  When do you feel most attractive?

  When I have my blue-colored clothes on.

  Are there any items that you have in multiple?

  Purses.

  What is the most transformative conversation you have ever had with someone on this subject?

  Grace, my daughter, did my colors. Then I always chose clothes within that palate.

  What are some dressing rules you wouldn’t necessarily recommend to others but you follow?

  The colors should go together.

  Do you have taste or style?

  Both! To get nice clothes during the war, I would barter or trade. Butter or milk could be exchanged for material or sewing. A trip back to Holland meant I could buy new clothes. I took really good care of them. I had a good figure. We had money in Holland, and I had a seamstress there during the war, but I didn’t have many clothes because of the war. I was interested in style. Two weeks before I got married, I got a new dress in a beautiful green. My wedding dress was white with all these little buttons down the front. It was unusual during the war to have white.

  What do you admire about how other women present themselves?

  In Jarvis church—the church we used to belong to when we got to Canada and bought a farm—I was the one they admired. Mrs. Kray had a nicely decorated house. She was a real lady. Dressed nicely. Behaved like a lady. Was not an immigrant. We went there often for coffee.

  Are there any women in culture whose style you admire?

  No one from TV or movies. Now, from Wheel of Fortune, Vanna looks good. She can pick whatever she wants to have on. She’s wealthy. And she has a good figure.

  Do you take after your mother in any way?

  I didn’t know my mom, but she was very beautiful and stylish. I know that from pictures. She died when I was nine. Once I took the boat from Canada to Holland, and my father was there when I disembarked. He said, “You are just like your mom.” I had on a beautiful coat fitted with buttons and orange polka dots. So my mom must have had good taste, too. There is only one picture of her, from approximately 1900, and indeed, she is very dressed up.

  When you see yourself in photographs, what do you think?

  Plain housewife. Nothing special. But I always had good clothes on. In a picture with friends in Niagara Falls, I had a blue-and-white polka-dot dress. It fit me so well. I had seven or eight kids then. I still had a good figure.

  How do you shop for clothes?

  I went once to Hamilton with a friend who lived close by. She lived with her dad and siblings and ran the house. Now sometimes a lady comes to the auditorium of Shalom with clothes to sell. But I don’t often buy because there are so many of the same things. And I don’t want to look like the other residents. There are ladies who buy, but maybe they are not as picky as me.

  How does money fit into all this?

  If I can get it on sale, I will, but it’s not always possible. My sister says I can smell the sales.

  What is your favorite piece?

  My blue sweater. And I have a coral brooch about two hundred years old. My husband bought it for me. And a gold pendant necklace.

  Was there ever an important purchase in your life?

  Mostly my jewelry.

  How does the way you dress play into your ambitions for yourself?

  What a funny question. I don’t think much about my ambition.

  How has your background influenced how you dress?

  I’m Frisian. A Dutch immigrant. I prefer European materials and styles and quality.

  What would be a difficult look for you to achieve?

  I would have trouble wearing something dowdy.

  How is all this important?

  For my feelings. I like the details.

  Do you have routines?

  I go to the hairdresser every week to get it washed an
d set. No makeup. For my age, my figure is pretty good. On my body I put good-smelling cream. With clothes, I pick the ones that look good. Before, I had a better figure, but that’s okay. I have a skirt in black with a little movement that’s my favorite.

  If you had to wear a “uniform,” what would it look like?

  A purse. And I always wear gold pendant of a Huguenot cross, night and day.

  Do you have any powerful clothing memories?

  I once had an apron with long sleeves to bathe a boy with diphtheria. A boy from Scheveningen who was staying with us during the war. He would have starved back at his home. He stayed in bed always.

  Are there any tricks that make you feel like you’re getting away with something?

  I was kind of shy. If I had to go into a room full of people, I didn’t go in first.

  SURVEY

  LOST

  “My dog ate my shoes. I liked them. I want them back. I want my dog back.” —ALEXA S.

  SUSAN SANFORD BLADES During my childbearing and married years, I think I lost my style. I lost a lot of myself. I became a jeans-and-T-shirt mom. My husband was very conservative, judgmental, and jealous, and thought any expression of myself was a deviation from the marriage. One day when he picked the kids up, I was wearing shorty-shorts with tights and moccasin boots, and he said, “Say hello to your colleagues downtown for me.” It wasn’t until we separated that I regained my style.

  KIRA JOLLIFFE I’ve lost too many things I’ve loved. These losses plague me, some even twenty years later. When I get a new piece of clothing I love, I grieve its future loss.

  ELEANOR WEST There’s a dress I didn’t buy for prom, a gold gown from Screaming Mimi’s. The top was silk and the bottom was taffeta. All my friends thought it was hideous, and maybe it was, but I remember it fondly. Sometimes I miss things that I didn’t buy.