On Saturday my very cute outfit was topped off with my very very cute and very sexy Juicy Couture Newsboy hat. When I wear that hat (as is the same when I wear my Burberry hat) I feel like a Queen Bee. I feel even more confident and sexy than I already think I am.
The hat is my black feather (Dumbo reference for those of you that forget such good movies). I can fly when I wear my hat.
As we are walking, or should I say sauntering, to the various bars we were going to I was told that a couple of them were very hard to get in to.
“We might have to wait a bit Rach.”
“Oh no problem," I shrug off.
We get to On Broadway, a huge huge nightclub built in an old bank. It has seven dance floors including a soundproof dance floor in the old vault.
A line had formed outside.
As we walk up I jump over the rope, cut in line and head toward the bouncer.
I flash a smile at the bouncer and he smiles back.
“Would you like to come inside?” he asks.
Since when do bouncers invite?
“Yeah me and him” I reply.
Wow, I thought to myself. That is four clubs I did not have to wait in line at tonight! It is the hat! My hat is lucky.
We made our way down the stairs and into the vault room where we settled on some sofas to take in our surroundings.
“Rachel, you know you could get any guy you want right”?
“No I cannot” I reply.
“I am just being honest”
“Since when are you the authority?” I know I can’t get just any guy. “I look like crap in the morning, trust me. I just clean up well,” I say trying to keep the conversation light.
Because, I know I am not perfect. We covered that illusion. I know I have my "faults" and I know I am no model or even the next Bill Gates.
But then I got to thinking…
Is it really the tight jeans and the hat that makes me bypass lines, receive heartwarming compliments, and all the love I have?
What if I was to just stand there completely bare? No hat. No makeup. Hair a mess. No clothing. Nothing but me and all of me. Would I still get it all?
We wear “masks” to become something else. A perfect example of this is Jim Carrey in the movie, The Mask. We have personas and we have roles we play. We feel confident in a certain outfit. We feel sexy in another. We feel powerful in our business suits and we feel successful in another. Baseball players have lucky socks they don't wash. And even Presidents and politicial people wear the "red tie."
But what if we strip it all away? What if I show all of me? Am I still that girl? Can we be so lucky even without our lucky charm?
It might come as a surprise but I don’t let people see all of me easily. It takes a lot of trust to let somebody in to see all of who I am. But those that have seen it, love me...so why the mask?
“You really think I can get any guy I want”?
“You’re the package that is for sure.”
So maybe it is what is under the mask that makes us special. We don’t need special jeans or lucky hats or any rabbit’s feet. Dumbo was able to fly without the feather.
His belief in himself made it so.
It was then that I realized that who I am is enough to get exactly what I want.
“I think I am rather drunk” I smile.
And then, I let myself just be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
While it's probably true that what got you in to the club was your smile and your confidence, not your black feather, your prop of the day gives you confidence to do the things you do. It's not as if you don't think you can do those marvelous things you do without the right hat. It's more like you know the proper accessories help you perform the trick.
A magician can do slight of hand in the buff. But put him in a tux and he can do anything.
Dumbo was once my favorite movie!
Appearances are everything; you have to dress the part. It's all about how other people see you, and whether or not how you see yourself matches up with that.
It's rather unfair; all throughout life we're given examples of how looks, clothes, materials don't matter. Unfortunately, there seems to have been a major shift, then.
Great post Rachel. I love the style. I would have to say that there are things we do to ourselves that make others perceive us as more "powerful" than we are. Things like your hat, but it all comes down to attitude. If you were a bitch about these things I don't think that you would have the same luck.
Scott
If you stood in line completely bare, you'd get what you want regardless of having a black feather or not =;-)
Glad you had a good time.
twobyfour nailed that one on the head (I know, it was bad). If you're confident — not cocky — you can do almost anything. People admire you and change their own perceptions of who you are, even if it's the first time they've seen or met you.
Of course you could have gotten into those clubs without the makeup, clothes, etc., as long as you had the same confidence and air about you.
While I agree that we do wear masks and show different persona's I wonder if those are masks to cover or masks to reveal. In the end I suppose it depends on the person wearing the mask.
In my case, depending who I'm around, some people would say I'm putting on a show or acting unlike myself when in reality I'm simply showing them a different side of the person I've always been. In that case you could say that I wear a mask all the time and take pieces of it off as opposed to the opposite.
While I love your blog, and can relate to its sentiments, my masks only come out at Halloween.
**So maybe it is what is under the mask that makes us special.
Spot on Rach!
I had a simliar post titled 'Masquerade'. We all wear masks in our daily life. What lies beneath is the real you.
Keshi.
*sigh* i think i would maybe like a more efficent mask. then again it may have to do with the nervousness of starting the new job today. gah, i hate feeling frumpy and such. then again maybe that's because all of my clothes got wrinkled.
2x4 - that is actually very insightful. You are right, maybe it is the masks that bring out who we really are
Mr. Burns - you have good taste in movies :)
And yes, I agree appearance means a lot. I was actually just watching a special on Sex and the City (sorry people that is my bible) and it was talking about how the fashion of that show told its own story.
Scott - I am only a bitch once a month :)
minijonb - touche. I wonder what would happen if we all had a nude day. Funny to think about!
Mike - maybe we have two masks..one to reveal and one to conceal. One is based on true love for the self and one is based on the ego?
JSG - Come on, you have to wear a mask sometimes!
Keshi - ahh I remember that post of yours! It was great.
Kat - ok drive down to The OC (how is the new place?) and I will take you shopping. I am very very good and finding clothing people like but also they feel comfortable in and look great in :)
whatever the real you are, it will always be there!! and trusts me, masks... well they are always not trustworthy ;-))
nice post!!
I doubt most people - like the bouncer - that just see you and instantly offer to let you through care one iota about anything other than how you look on that particular day. He likely let you in because 1) they are paid to let hot girls in and 2) he thought he might get some. Even if that is the most impossible thought imaginable, he thought it. So in answer to your question - "What if I was naked?" I guarantee he would let you in then. :-)
Two masks, interesting thought. To make it simpler — for when you get dressed in the morning ;^) — it might be easier to say that they would each be the opposite half of the same mask. That way, you could reveal the side that shows your ego while still concealing the side that shows your true self.
Of course, just thinking about it, doesn't ego come from a true love of the self, at least in part? The more we talk about it, the masks really starting to show their true nature as 10,000+ piece jigsaw puzzles. Anyone else like puzzles :^)
I've always wondered if people are truly capable of removing their masks completely. This topic has made me think of a remark in The Matrix movies, where Agent Smith is telling the story of how humans couldn't live in a perfect world, their minds couldn't fathom it. Chaos had to be included in order for the humans to survive. I would really like to know how people would interact as their true selves.
Then again, I may just be full of shit. ;^)
Wow you really are a young Carrie Bradshaw. She always got into 'the' clubs.
Any pics of this really cute outfit?
I don't think we could get along with each other as our true selves. Inside, the person is a horribly chaotic storm of thoughts, fantasies, impulses, and illogical nonsense. I think that's why we invented masks.
Post a Comment