Friday 13 January 2012

Reading and writing remembering in the New Year


I've been re-reading Nancy Mitford (you'll see why, in the Closet Thinker that I've posted, below), along with Alice Munroe's brilliant short story collection, The Love of a Good Woman, which is even better than I remembered it, and Five Sisters by James Fox (equally absorbing, and with some overlap of subject matter -- the lives and loves of women -- but also satisfyingly different, as a narrative non-fiction history of a dynasty that was almost too odd to invent).
More sisters on my mind -- you'll see I've been thinking about the Bronte corsets at the Parsonage in Haworth -- and my own sister, as always. The story about Ruth's misdiagnosis and death of breast cancer is more complicated than its reporting; but then isn't that generally the case in the messiness of real life? If I have learnt anything from Ruth's death, it is that life is precious, and all the more so for the randomness that can shape our journeys. Ruth cherished the little pleasures, as well as her great loves (and she had a huge capacity to love, and be loved), yet was also forced into confronting the worst of all losses -- to leave those who she loved, when she was far too young to die. Many years have passed since her death, but still, she seems so close; to me, at least, as if the apparent distance between us (that of the dead and the living) is not impossible to navigate. Whenever I write, she is somewhere in my mind -- as the writer whose courage and openness I admire and applaud, as well a beloved friend and sister, and the reader who understands where we both came from, even though she has traveled far ahead of me. Ruth knew the power of tiny details, as well as big ideas; of how our daily lives (what we wear, eat, read, discuss) forms a tapestry that continues to be threaded and sewn over many years. I once believed that death put an end to that weaving; yet it seems not to now. Here, then, are some small patches of an unfinished tapestry...


Closet Thinker: January 1st

We all know that Marilyn Monroe declared she wore nothing but Chanel No.5 to bed, but perhaps she might have been happier the morning after the night before in soft cotton pyjamas? In my experience, they are a welcome consolation against the harsh realities of January, as long as they are not made of nylon; for I still remember those sudden shocks of static electricity from childhood, induced by the synthetic peach nightgowns that my maternal grandmother bought as Christmas presents for all the female members of the family.
My mother generally donated these flounced nighties to the dressing-up-box – my sister and I wore them to Narnia and back again – and like her, I would rather sleep in plain cotton than frilly acrylic. As a look, however, this can need fine-tuning; even the grandest of Nancy Mitford’s aristocrats loses her dignity appearing thus in Love in a Cold Climate: ‘Lady Montdore cut rather a comic figure drinking strong tea in bed among masses of lace pillows, her coarse grey hair frizzed out and wearing what appeared to be a man’s striped flannel pyjama top under a feathered wrap.’

Mitford always had a sharp eye for these details, perhaps because she came of age in an era when pyjama parties were the milieu of the fashionable Bright Young People. (‘Dearest Old Bottom,’ she wrote to her brother Tom in 1928, upon escaping from the conventional formalities of English family life in the countryside, ‘My dear this visit is being a perfect orgy, if only you were here you don’t know what you’ve missed We haven’t once been to bed before 2, pyjama parties every night…’). Hence the parade of nightwear in Mitford’s first novel, ‘Highland Fling’: ‘Sally looked lovely in crepe-de-chine pyjamas, over which she wore a tweed coat lined with fur. Lady Prague was also wrapped in a tweed coat over a linen nightdress and a Shetland wool cardigan.’

Mitford’s scene was set in a draughty Scottish castle, but her world was not entirely removed from that of Coco Chanel in silk pyjamas, entertaining the Duke of Westminster and Winston Churchill at her Riviera villa, the epitome of apparently easy chic. ‘Coco dines at home in printed pyjamas,’ ran the Vogue caption to Christian Berard’s illustration of Chanel in 1937, ‘[with] jewels, striped linen, flannel jacket…’ Perhaps the closest we can get to that fantasy landscape nowadays is within the pages of the Toast catalogue, inhabited by tousled beauties in velvet dressing gowns; either that, or escape to bed to read the glorious stories of Nancy Mitford herself.

Closet Thinker: January 8th

Within the archives of the Bronte Parsonage Museum are several tiny corsets, belonging to the sisters, and when you see them on a winter’s day, as I have done, it seems believable that Anne, Emily and Charlotte died young because of a combination of cold, consumption and constriction. It is the memory of these corsets that prompts me to suggest that January might not be the best month to squeeze oneself into the modern equivalent – now known as ‘shapewear’ – given that we are already tortured by dismal weather, indigestion, and winter viruses. Breathing freely is therefore the only sensible option…

Not that I’m averse to a new set of underwear at this time of year, as long as it’s not too tight; anything that provides a small pleasure in these, the most depressing weeks. Having recently interviewed two very chic women – L’Wren Scott and Carine Roitfeld – I was struck by how practical they were on the subject of underpinnings. Scott (who designs for the voluptuous Christina Hendricks, amongst others) remarked that big knickers were unnecessary with a properly fitted dress – ‘you don’t need control underwear to do the work of a zip, that’s what the dress is for’ – although she also recommended an excellent bra from John Lewis. And Roitfeld, the former editor in chief of French Vogue, proclaimed the cheering effect of black tights (hers are from Fogal, sheer and seamed at the back): ‘something that makes me happy now is a pair of new tights – it’s not so expensive, not like buying a Dolce & Gabbana dress or a Dior bag – this is nearer to yourself, nearer to your skin, something that makes you more sensuous, more voluptuous, more woman…’

There’s nothing like a conversation with Carine Roitfeld to make you want to rush out and buy French lingerie – she wears the highly desirable Carine Gilson (stocked at net-a-porter, though a trip to the Paris boutique in Rue de Grenelle would be a delight). Simone Perele is also good for quintessentially Parisian pieces, at slightly more affordable prices; I’ve got my eye on the charmingly named Invisi’bulles control briefs, that look less dominatrix than gossamer.

Meanwhile, I remain a fan, like everyone else, of stalwart M&S underwear, particularly the Ultimate Magic Secret Support Tights (not such a secret after all, given that quarter of a million pieces were sold in the run-up to Christmas). True, they’re not quite as glamorous as Fogal seamed stockings, but they do the trick for me, gently smoothing over a full stomach. Here’s to a comfortably happy new year…

10 comments:

HB said...

A lovely and (for me especially) perfectly timed post.

The weaving of the tapestry of life doesn't end with death, does it? The threads you thought would be cut continue. I'm only just realising this as I emerge blinking into the daylight.

Love to you for 'Courage' and so much more.

Helen x

enid said...

Those nylon static nighties are still in our shops. My granny had a collection and bought me peach ones too. They were awful !!!!! Those who die live on in our memories and we continue to weave their threads I agree. I am going to read Nancy Mitford's novels as I have always read about her but not her novels. Do you remember White Mischief by James Fox - the lives of the British in Kenys now that's another thread for you to follow All the best for 2012.

Justine Picardie said...

Good to hear from you, Helen, and hope that the coming year brings with it some more sunlit days.
Enid -- yes, the peach nighties were from Woolworths in Cape Town!
Speaking of which, I think I will be there in September (Cape Town, that is; is Woolworths still there?).

enid said...

I am delighted that you will be coming here. Are you going to speak? There are Woolworths all over and their foodhalls are great !!!!!! I will take you to them all.

jaywalker said...

Thanks for all the interesting links once again.I've just ordered 'Five Sisters'. That period has always fascinated me. I read 'The Bolter" and 'The Viceroy's Daughters' a while back and have read all the Mitford biographies but haven't reread the novels for many years, so must do so.
I also have "The Last Curtsey" waiting to be read, not to mention the six other books my partner bought me for Christmas! Good job I'm retired really!

On the subject of corsetry I just found this interesting:

http://www.fathom.com/course/21701726/sessions.html

amanda white said...

Golly, I hadn't thought about those hideous nighties for years - smooth on the inside and (eventually) bobbly on the outside. Pale blue. Must have been a granny thing to buy them. Mine haunted Streatham Woolworths so now I know where they came fom.

Thanks for the (uncomfortably static) memory.
Amanda
x

Lilacs said...

In the spirit of reading, writing and remembering though you might like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8&feature=player_embedded, a reposte to the e-reader. Via http://www.thewomensroomblog.com/

jaywalker said...

And do you remember the very short lived, than goodness, fashion for sheets of the same ghastly material - often in orange?

kairu said...

Home again, and thinking of all the books I've read over the past year, Mitford's re-issued Penguins, Stella Gibbons' Westwood and Nightingale Woods, Linda S. Grant's lovely We Had it So Good and her achingly beautiful When I Lived in Modern Times, David Grossman's See Under: Love (which Linda Grant calls his masterpiece), and his latest, heartbreaking To the End of the Land. Thinking, too, of the loss of a friend I wish I had known better, and the death of my father's elder sister, who I also never got to know well enough. And thinking of happier things, sweet babies born in the last year, my favorite cousin's recent wedding, and yours soon to come, Justine. That tapestry never stops being woven, does it? Other people come along to pick up the shuttle, to continue that lost pattern...

In the foreward to Brooke Hayward's memoir of love and family and loss, Haywire, Buck Henry wrote this (perhaps I've mentioned this before): 'The pleasures of the past live on, mixed in all of us. So do the pains. But we can outrun them if we try.'

Speaking of Marilyn Monroe, I recently saw a wonderful French mystery film called 'Poupoupidou' ('Nobody Else but You') about a writer trying to solve the death of a tv star who believed she was the reincarnation of MM. It's beautiful and funny and haunting, set in a small town in the Jura in the dead of winter.

Justine Picardie said...

Thank you, everyone, for these ideas and links and insights. More books for my reading list, and a film that I definitely now want to see -- and wonderful connections, as always, thanks to all of you...