Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

To continue the saga of my life in clothes, begun in yesterday's Musing, I'll pick it up in college. As I said, I was much happier with myself when I was a college undergrad than I had been during much of high school, since I'd lost about 30 pounds.

I began wearing brighter colors, and I grew my hair long, giving expression to my inner hippie. My wardrobe still consisted primarily of oversized T-shirts, but I would sometimes wear skirts. Actually, it was usually a tank top dress with an oversized T-shirt.

My fondness for strange clothing items continued, such as these red, white and blue star-spangled sunglasses.

Somewhere, I managed to find a pair of medium blue cropped sweatpants, which for some strange reason had zippers in the front, right in the middle of the thigh (but nothing underneath). Primarily because they were unique, and comfortable, I wore them for years until they finally wore out.

At the time, I was often on the move, so when I wasn't lugging around my backpack, I used a fanny pack to carry around my important things. As this picture shows, you can get away with just about anything when you're 20, from big hair to short-shorts to a red fanny pack.

I will note, also, that I did absolutely nothing to my hair to make it big except grow it long. It got big on its own.

My winter gear primarily consisted of oversized sweaters, jeans and old-fashioned wool coats I got at second hand stores.

In addition to some hand-made tie-dyes that my brother and I did in our backyard, which are all shades of blue (since that's the only color of Rit Dye we had), I also had some professionally made tie-dyes, which were among my favorite items of clothing. In fact, I loved my red tie-dye so much I wore it for my college graduation photo in 1992.

Over the course of my four years of college, I actually gained about 35-40 pounds and was pretty unhappy with myself. As this picture, taken in 1993, shows, I had resorted to oversized T-shirts and baggy pants, in an effort to hide. In addition to really long, unkempt hair, I wore a black leather wide-brimmed hat I picked up in a hippy store. You might also recognize the denim jacket, which by now had really faded and was patched (left sleeve and left shoulder) and covered in buttons.

I don't have any pictures that I can find easily, but I also loved to wear a pair of Army boots that I bought in Jim's Army Navy in State College.

When I got accepted to grad school, I reluctantly cut my hair, in an effort to look more professional. The cut was cute, but it looked somewhat boyish when paired with high-waisted baggy jeans, a violet shirt and a black jacket, as in this photo from 1994.

In 1994, my life changed dramatically as I broke up with the long-term boyfriend I've nicknamed Leechboy. I dyed my hair black and flirted with some more daring clothes, such as this outfit from a 1995 New Year's party.

I soon tired of the black hair, and as my weight started to creep upward again, I reverted to oversized hippy clothes, as in this photo, taken at New Year's 1996.

In the summer of 1996, I married a hippy guy I've nicknamed The Druid, but we were too different from each other, and we started divorce proceedings shortly after our first anniversary. Feeling terrible about myself, and hitting new highs in terms of weight, I hid behind oversized hippy skirts and blousy shirts, as in this photo from about 1997.

When I got a job as a newspaper reporter in October 1997, I ended up with a sort of schizophrenic wardrobe. In my free time, I wore hippy clothes, and when I was on the job, I wore somewhat quirky professional clothes, such as this studded dark green jacket I wore for my official picture.

Over my years at the newspaper, I gained even more weight, topping out at about 220 (or perhaps higher; I wasn't really fond of scales) by the time I started to do something about it in the year 2000. Here's me in some colorful hippy clothes at the 2000 New Year's party.

I got hired by a museum in Philadelphia and moved in January 2001, gradually taking off weight with the support of family and my boyfriend at the time, The Invisible Man. I've already showed you some of my work and casual clothes from that era.

As I've lost the weight, about 80 pounds of it, I've gradually begun experimenting with new clothing styles, as these photos taken over the past three or four years show. I'm not about to claim that every one of these looks works equally well, but it's been an evolving process.

The musing that started all this includes some pictures from this summer. I'm at a point where I'm happy with myself and am wearing better fitting clothes in a wider range of colors. Because I'm pickier about what I wear, I have to try on more clothes before I find something I'm happy with. I still frequent vintage and consignment clothing stores, but I usually find only one or two items each visit. When I buy new clothes in a department store, I usually go with a specific idea of what sort of thing I need to find and try on clothes until I find it.

Some of the clothes in the photos above are now too big (such as, sadly, that great pink jacket and my Margaret Cho T-shirt, too). Others I'm jettisoning for stylistic reasons (I now realize the faded jeans aren't terribly flattering for my body type). The most recent picture, of me with Buddy Christ, is a pretty typical shot from the spring. The purple sweater, by the way, is light enough to wear in the summer in air-conditioned buildings (why are they always so cold?).

So there you have it, a little view at my fashion tastes over the years. What's next? Who knows? Keep reading Musings and you'll see!

More on my life in clothes:

Part One

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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