We're staying at a hotel where we are the largest humans ever to have found the reception desk - the ground floor is all bright shiny white, desks, bar, gauzy curtains, and on a sunny day you really have to squint. Everyone else seems to weigh about 90 pounds and have tiny ankles and straight or straightened hair. We have been treated with gentle respect, as if staff is afraid that we could collapse from the weight of our own size 10-ness and fall on one of the teensies and crush him or her to smithereens.
I did notice one very large guy muttering in Russian into an iPhone. "I feel I should know who that is," I murmured to the young man who - amazingly - could lift my luggage. "No," he said. "You should not."
This is not the part of Florida where one sees leopard.
But thoughts of leopard and leopard-like substances are in the air. Joyce Wadler writes a column/blog called I Was Misinformed
and here is what she had to say about leopard this week:
I have discovered something I call Age Related Gut-reactions (ARG) in which you are suddenly compelled to start doing things you thought only old people did. Buying leopard print clothing if you are a woman, for instance. Is there anything that screams sexual desperation and an inability to afford the deep plane face-lift you really want more than leopard print? No. But hit 55 and you will find yourself drawn to it. I wish I could say science is working on a cure.
Disclosure time: I have a "leopard" belt but I didn't bring it with me because it's too small.
Well, we return to cold and colder tomorrow, it's been a lovely break, and I hope all of you are finding good ways to keep warm.
Go stay at the Mondrian South Beach when the LA Lakers are in town. You will feel instantly petite.
ReplyDeleteWe are at the Mondrian SB!
DeleteNo teams in sight, though,
Do they still have the anime figure staring at the bed bed? I didn't mind that but my husband hated it. Although it was much better than a giant image of Courtney Love, which we had over our hotel bed in Budapest!
DeleteI love the Mondrian SB. So convenient to shop Whole Foods most every day. Making our own meals was important lest we gain an ounce and be banished from the pool, where sunbathing is a competitive sport. Great people watching though, although IKWYM about the absence of leopard. Safe journey home Fred!
The head of a doe-eyed girl is all over the place, fortunately not in the bedroom. And there are various views of a horse - front, side, rear - in the elevators.
DeleteToo funny! Right now, is just the kiki calf hair ballet flats. I try other stuff, but just seem to not go with it...
ReplyDeleteYes, isn't it time to end the propaganda that ""Leopard is a neutral" or "Stripes are a neutral"? The stops over paisley or leopard with faux-tartan look is one I don't even want to try to carry off.
DeleteI wear lots of neutrals and lots of dark colors, I'm quite print shy. I am in the leopard-is-a-neutral camp. I love leopard. I don't wear florals, rarely stripes and don't care for most prints. Although I am . . . shall we say not a spring chicken . . . I've always liked leopard. I didn't start wearing it when I hit my 40s. I just adore it. In small and measured doses, and if it is the good leopard print. Well done, pretty and not stylized. I have 4 pairs of leopard shoes and several gorgeous silk leopard scarves. I might have leopard pajamas :)
DeleteI am 40 but then again I was always precocious...that explains my sudden leopard print obsession!
ReplyDeleteMy current age-related obsession is my posture. At the oddest moments I panic that I'm not standing up straight, and I start flexing shoulders, tightening "core"...
DeleteMaybe that's why I fight the leopard...just not old enough yet ;). I am also now strangely attracted to "the housecoat" but am resisting with all my might.
ReplyDeleteHousecoat! No, you must declare your home a housecoat-free zone. This minute, hear?
DeleteAm I allowed to get one of those velveteen floor length zip up robes then? Wrap around sunglasses? Or should I just hem all my pants about two inches too short? See, me and my housecoat aren't looking to bad anymore ;)
DeleteHehe, pants 2 inches too short don't signify age on women, they only show that the wearer shops at J.Crew, where everyone is slender, forever young, and isn't having a bad hair day, she did that on purpose.
DeleteOh my gosh the housecoat thing is happening to me too, will resist! But I hate to even admit it, I was thinking of a leopard print housecoat...
ReplyDeleteDani, you must get a grip. A housecoat is not retro, not Ironic, not attractive. It's a statement that the wearer has Given Up.
DeleteHahaha. When I switched to PJ's from nightgowns, MLane looked at me for a time. "So, now we're middle aged".
DeleteI have leopard socks? Doesn't count. I don't think it would suit me; if you are my age with long streaky hair, the rest needs to be a bit muted. If I had a different house, a little leopard slipper chair might slink in.
ReplyDeleteSlinky slipper chair or campaign stool - yes. Leopard sheets - not.
DeleteOMG, does ARG explain why I was compelled to buy Navy Glitter Darby flats?
ReplyDeleteJoyce's article didn't mention sparkly or glittery things, but IMO buying glitter shoes means two things: you thought they were cute and amusing and you have in your life someone who vacuums up after you.
DeleteOh my...I am only in my early 30s but already have two leopard dresses (I feel that the Kate Spade gray leopard doesn't really count though), a cardigan, and flats. Premature aging?
ReplyDeleteJoyce's article wasn't clear about how much leopard O's too much leopard, she went on to talk about other age signifiers, so I will venture an answer: only if you wear all of them at once, including layering the dresses.
DeleteOh my, I have been firmly in the "leopard is a neutral" camp for, say, about the last 30 years. It reminds me of the New Wave I loved in the early 80s. But perhaps I've taken it to an extreme: due to a foot problem I've been wearing an ACE bandage on my ankle, over my nude mini-fishnets. A colleague said: "You need to get a leopard-print bandage."
ReplyDeleteI'm going out on a limb here, but IMO witty accessories and good tailoring are ageless.
DeleteLeopard doesn't bother me, but calf hair does. I've tried with the shoes but returned. No matter how cute they looked (and one pair in particular were the cutest ever), it seemed like I should be petting them. I felt like I was wearing pets on my feet. I don't have this issue with Uggs, makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a calf hair loafer and to me it felt like a dachshund, so I kind of understand this.
DeleteThanks for the shout out! Hilarious article and you know, now I'm 51 and three quarters i do feel strangely drawn to it! Though as I said, I put the shoes on, I take the shoes off. Like studs on anything or spikes, It never comes home with me. When we were in Jackson Hole I saw what looked like a real leopard coat. Goodness knows where it was from, but along with the Hummer sister type four wheel drives there were obviously buyers for it, shocker.
ReplyDeleteI love leopard and other animal prints. I have managed to hold myself to leopard gloves, which don't go so great with my old red Eddie Bauer down coat and the sweatpants over my fleece-lined tights, but I don't think anyone on the bus cares.
ReplyDelete