JAUNISSE

Jacket, Wet Seal; Dress, P&Co at Padini; Bag, Furry Tails; Tights, Soxworld; Shoes, Forever 21.

I wore this ensemble, a rather slipshod one, to screen Godard’s “A Bout de Souffle” early in the day at college. One boy turned up wearing a beret; whether or not that was intentional is a mystery to me. Speaking of intentions, especially the humorously silly ones, I had a beret in mind too. I was imagining the whole structure of the look- b&w striped top, black flowing skirt and flashy red shoes. But surely that would be tacky of me to dress up as a Frenchie for the sake of a nouvelle vague picture.

So I scratched that idea off, buried my hands deeper into the throat of my white wardrobe and found this P&Co shift dress with a large bow detail as a low-key substitute instead. My main idea was to pair it with my tomato-red tights to produce high contrast but I decided that such hue would either horrify my student-audience or amuse them at the expense of my mortification. For the lack of imagination, I let my legs be wrapped in the dirty-mustard one instead. Then another boy (all shaggy-haired) came up to me, submitted his worksheet on my table and quipped, "Do you have jaundice?"

Priceless.