Day 9 Rain, rain, rain … that’s how it went. Not only was the sky pouring all day, but my middle son had vomit pouring from his mouth. I knew he was not feeling well, so I kept him home from school. After a very disappointing headshot day, I was yearning and praying for a good day. Instead we had gloomy weather, one kid puking, and the youngest lost his retainer in an egg hunt … so it was back to the orthodontist for a 3rd retainer in 2 months (insert blue scream emoji). Thankfully I had my static wardrobe outfit so I did not have to spend a minute thinking about what to wear: I just threw on my jean skirt, tee shirt and cardigan (because it was raining) and loaded the little guy into the car for the orthodontist. I was feeling too lazy to lace up my white sneakers, so I just slid on my Birks (admittedly not a great choice with puddles and the cold rain). I would have been much more cozy in my sneakers. The ortho has a Keurig, so my second cup of coffee was inevitable. The few minutes I was waiting for my coffee I glanced down to see a stack of current fashion mags. As I reached for one, the voice in my head said “really that is too much temptation for you right now, remember your fashion diet.” Sigh … looking at the beautiful fashion was a temptation that I did not need, just like not bringing the cheese cake into the house because the temptation is too great. I was in a vulnerable spot with fashion temptation and having a rough week so far, so better not even look. For a moment in my head I tried to justify looking by saying really its research for your blog. Similar to, “oh I am just buying this ice cream or cheese cake for the kids.” First thing I would be innocently flipping through the pages, then looking through the credits in the back to find out the brand, then google and soon enough … a box would be on my door step screaming “shame on you!” two days later. I resisted.
My son always gags on that gooey stuff they use to make the retainer molds, and this time we had to do the molds twice because of his flailing. On the second go-round, in my stress and trying to comfort him, I unconsciously squeezed my coffee cup too hard. The top popped off and I had a puddle of hot coffee on my lap. I knew the great absorbency of denim. The dental assistant was tending to the mold and my son while I frantically scanned the room for the paper towel dispenser, but by the time I found the towels, the coffee had absorbed into the skirt and the rest had dripped through onto my legs. The dental assistant did not even react; either she was so used to crazy moms like me or she was so focused she did not see what had happened. My only thought after getting through the hot coffee on my skirt and my legs was, “darn, now I have to do Laundry.” I’m happy to report that as of today, I have only had to launder my skirt once. And with three tee shirts, I have not had to do any other laundry other than for the kids and Tim.
When I got home, much to my chagrin, the sick boy had not made it to the toilet and had instead puked on his blankets, towels and bathroom rugs all in a line on the way to the potty. Ugh, yes I had more laundry to do. Thankfully we have the extra sanitary cycle on our machine. I usually don’t put my clothes on that setting or especially denim, but since I had to wash my skirt anyway because it had become a coffee mop, I decided to just throw it in there. I would not suggest this.
Tip of the Day: I worked for a company who did denim and for a short time dated one of the denim experts so, I learned a lot about denim. Also while traveling to Asia, LA and Mexico, I would travel with the denim team (even though I was a knit wear designer). All that to say: experts say you should not wash denim, ever, unless it is extremely necessary. For one, denim shrinks like mad. Also, it does not retain its color. Even though they use coatings and processes that are supposed to help keep the color, it never fully works. The marketing of anti-fade? Nope, not true … it is marketing. It may not fade out completely (or even a lot), but the fade is unavoidable. Also, every time you wash denim the fibers shrink. So when you put the jeans back on you think to yourself, “I could not have gained that much weight since yesterday.” But by the end of the day they fit again. The reason why? The fibers are breaking down and you are shortening the life of your denim. Best advice: buy your denim a size smaller than you feel comfortable in and let it stretch and mold to your body shape and do not (do not!) wash it unless you spill coffee on it or it begins to smell. Yes, read that again, I am serious: not washingis how you will extend the life of your favorite pair of jeans. This is especially important for the ripped holes jeans that are so trendy right now: washing those just encourages the breakdown of the fibers in the holes that are already compromised from the distressing process. (By the way, on a side note: did you know the way they get those holes and distressed look? There are people in factories in China and Mexico with razors, knives, wire scrub brushes and brillo pads, strategically beating the heck out of that denim to make it look like that. Yep it really is manual labor.) I personally don’t have any ripped denim this fashion trend go-round. I wore it in the 80s and then again in the early 90s, but this time around the trend is skinny ripped and flesh bubbling out of a ripped hole is never a good look.
Come back tomorrow for Day 10, to see how I went from fashion power house to “Just Mom,” and more on what’s going on 10 days into the fashion experiment.
Ps. The featured image is a ball gown, it was satisfying my need for excitement!
