The Man Makes The Suit

It seems to me that when I've ever written about clothes, it's been about very basic, low-level stuff. I've written about socks, doing the laundry and other things that reveal just how minimally competent I am in matters sartorial. If putting a cotton t-shirt in the laundry and having it come out clean and un-ruined is a crapshoot at best for me, then I can hardly be expected to venture into the area of white-collar attire, let alone traditional high fashion. The latter will likely never happen except when fashion goes slumming, as it sometimes does. The former recently happened in something of an interesting way. I knew upon reflection that this was something well worth commemorating in prose, given its great rarity. I'm doing a one man show, and decided to choose as a subject historical parody. Specifically, I'm presenting a skewed version of Mark Twain's life. I believe I have mentioned this.

I'll have more to say on the show, but what's immediately germaine is that I've just begun working on the costume aspect of it. Mark Twain was not known for t-shirts and ragged jeans as I am, and so I begrudgingly considered how I might achieve the proper look. Twain is best known for white suits, with bow ties and straw hats being fairly consistent accesories. That at least is what I've found to be the case. I don't have any of those things. I hope to come by them before the show, but in the meantime am making do with what I have. I have a gray suit acquired from a friend which does not quite fit me. Upon receiving it months ago, I expressed an intention to have the suit fitted to my frame. Naturally that never happened. The pants are too long, but the jacket isn't the worst. I have three dress shirts, but only one plain one. I have a single pair of non-sneaker shoes. From all of that, I cobbled together a tolerable grown-man suit which Twain plausibly could have worn outside of the surprisingly short period of his late life when he actually wore what people remember him wearing.

When the day came to perform for the class in costume, I put this outfit on and headed out. Somehow it made sense to wear it on the way rather than change on arrival. I started to think twice as the heat mounted and I began sweating. As you know, I use public transportation, rendering the thing all the more inconvenient. I did enjoy feeling as if all the others on the train were envious of me; I concocted through their eyes a kind of fantasy about who I was and what I was up to. Finally I arrived at class and did my performance, which did benefit from the costume. I move and act differently when in a suit instead of 'street clothes'. Now, I might well have changed at this point, but decided not to on account of the harm I envisioned befalling my fancy clothes should I take them off. I had no special thing to put them in, and they could be damaged anyway given my mode of travel. I kept them on.

Before going home, my agenda had one last item on it: an improv show. I was to watch, not participate. I knew I'd get some comments on my suit. Others wouldn't, but I definitely would, and I did. The reaction was uniformly positive, with terms like dapper, snazzy and "cleans up nice" being thrown around. Interesting that not everyone instantly assumed that I was dressed in costume as a character. That actually reflects well on me, as it means that people can imagine me dressed nicely while still being myself. I am genuinely giving thought to employing such clothes more often, so pleasant was it to dress up and be treated so. I wonder how many suits I would have to have to dress that way regularly, and what I would have to spend on them and dry cleaning. Well, if I don't go that far, at least I know I can pull it off when it's called for.