The Seersucker Social is a unique event. Organizer Eric Channing Brewer manages to rustle up 800 or so people dressed in a sort of Edwardian/1920's hybrid of cloche hats, floral dresses, natty suits and bow ties. They then take a liesurely bicycle ride through the city and end up at the Hillwood Estate, a mansion tucked away in Rock Creek Park that bears a striking resemblance to an 18th Century French Chateau. Then the scene becomes very Great Gatsby with naughty gin cocktails, croquet on the ample lawn, live jazz music and dancing and an all out fashion promenade.
The fashion promenade is fashion in its highest form- at least by my definition. That is : ordinary people transforming themselves by carefully chosen clothing into something beautiful and unique and being joyful in the moment. It's not a vain thing as in My Chanel handbag costs more than your Gucci. It's not about snobbism or exclusivity or labels or spending a fortune. It's about looking good in creative new ways with clothing. I saw alot of things from PollySue's repurposed in original ways. A 19th century red dotted swiss long skirt had been cut off to make a chic peplum belt over a mini dress. A yardage of foam green and white seersucker had been fashioned into a button front day dress -designed and sewn by the wearer. A 1970's polyester dress with a flowing skirt had, when combined with an artfully tipped hat, the look of a flapper from 1925. A simple navy blue straw hat when joined with wide legged trousers , a tank top,and dark glasses made me think Lauren Bacall herself was striding along the lawn.
Jackie and I had fun also. I almost chickened out and wore a modern floral dress, which would have been fine, but then I thought, where else can I wear my authentic Sufragette white linen dress from 1915 with the asymetrical buttons that I got at the Brimfield Antique Market years ago? Where else could I wear my authentic 1920's cloth maryjane shoes with the low heels? Where else could I wear my slightly moth damaged 1920's cloche hat with the orange rosette on the side? And where else could Jackie wear a nineteenth century cotton step in ( known now as a "teddy" and accentuate it with lavish costume jewelry and combat boots to look like one of the "ladies" in a cable series about the building of the railways in the 19th century?
Strolling around the grounds dressed this way was in a sense like entering another dimension- mostly because everyone else had put such effort and style into their clothing. Perhaps the popularity of this event and its Fall cousin, the Tweed Ride, is because this kind of joy in clothing just isn't indulged much in modern life. We throw on something made of tee shirt material and go about our business looking like everyone else. Weddings and Proms seem to be the last hold outs for dress up occasions. Formality has been left behind in the dizzying sweep of digital devices, instant information, virtual reality. The opportunity to enter the kind of fashion time warp offered by the Seersucker Social is a rare treat, and to those of us who secretly wished we lived in another place and time where clothing was something other than just covering for your body- a bonanza, a jackpot, a delight.
As I was taking the house tour of Marjorie Merriwether Post's over the top mansion I looked out the window past the Faberge egg which was worth more than my house and saw the tableau of the well dressed people dancing, strolling, laughing, and vamping. And I thought, they are the real works of art, done for the sheer joy of being young, looking good and haing fun with fashion. .
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