Movie Night

Stripes are having a moment. Though, in all honesty, it feels like stripes always have a moment when the weather warms. In that way they are like espadrilles. Identified as a trend when they are merely a seasonal style.

I've been having a stripes moment for at least the past five years. Horizontal and vertical. In sailor-like tops and sweater dresses. In fact, I often have to consciously instruct myself not to buy another striped item because I don't need anymore. I'm pretty sure this one-sided conversation has been witnessed many times by sales associates in various stores. At a minimum, it must be entertaining for them.

Though many of the striped pieces one sees during this time of year conjure images of sailboats and sweater sets, I originally drew my stripes inspiration from elsewhere. My freshman year of college I was taking French, trying to get my language requirement out of the way so I'd never have to care about the subjunctive ever again. I came to regret that bit of folly, but lamenting the loss of my French skills is neither here nor there. As is common in language classes of all levels, we were occasionally required to watch movies. But instead of the ridiculous videos that often accompanied my high school language textbooks or the silly teen movies, like La Boum, that we repeatedly begged our teacher to let us watch, our professors wanted to expose us to something more substantial.

One night near the middle of the spring semester, we all gathered in a classroom to watch Breathless on a much too small television. Disgruntled about spending our free time in class instead of studying, or finding any way possible to not study, we were not enamored with the film. In fact, during the end scene, we yelled at the main character, asking for it to end so we could return to more important tasks.

It was rather juvenile of us, and all I remember from a film that I should rewatch now that I'm older and less impatient was Jean Seberg. There she was all pixie haircut and slim pants and stripes.



She played with the line that separates the feminine from the masculine. The whole look had an ease to it that I still strive to accomplish. For brief moments, I sat up and paid attention.

During that year, and all of those that followed before graduation pushed me out into the real world, there were more revelations of this sort to come. This was one of the first.


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