Friday, November 18, 2016

Pantsuits and pussy bows



HALLIE EPHRON: Confession, I wore my first pantsuit with a blouse that had a pussy bow. I was in college and, like everything else, we thought we invented them.

My pantsuit was pale blue, made of a stretchy material (polyester?) that retained body odor. Now that I think of it, it was actually more
akin to a leisure suit than a power suit Ironically that same year I was wearing mini-dresses that barely covered my butt.
Women weren't allowed to wear pantsuits on the Senate floor until
1993. We owe it to Senator Barbara Mikulski (Senator (D) from Maryland since 1987) and Senator Carol Moseley Braun (Senator (D) from Illinois, 1993-1999) for defying that rule.

Did you wear pantsuits, and were you making a "statement" when you did?


RHYS BOWEN: First confession: I've never worn a pussy bow in my life. And now I never will. Never. Ever.

But I have always loved pantsuits. I remember my first, clearly. It was pale beige (and those of you who know me will comment that I have not become more adventurous with color over the years). I bought it at our local department store in England in 1968. After
years of cold legs while standing at bus stops in skirts during the English winter I thought it was heaven. Unfortunately I don't think I have a picture of it. But I do have one of a more recent beige pant outfit.

LUCY BURDETTE: I have at least four nice pantsuits in my closet in Connecticut. The oldest vintage is black wool with thin white pin stripes--it's a three-piece, including matching vest. I can't for the life of me remember why I bought it or where I was going to wear it. But I've kept it in the event I'm invited to a gangster party...it would be perfect!


Aside from that one, my first events as a mystery author were all conducted in pantsuits. Here are two photos. 




The first was in 2005 at the fabulous, now defunct Quail Ridge Books in North Carolina. The second took place in the Scranton Library in Madison CT.

You are in that photo Hallie, along with Kristan Higgins and Maddie Dawson. I think you must have been thinking: "What is up with that outfit?"

As for pussy bows, no. Just no.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  My last pantsuit was in 1968. No, 1967. I got it on Carnaby Street.  I LOVED IT.  It was purple wool, with a sleek double breasted longish jacket and purple wool slim bellbottoms. It was AWESOME.  I wish I still had it, just to look at
it, but I think I wore it so much I wore it out.

I also, ahem, had a pantsuit of lavender linen. The pants were hot pants.  It was 1970. I wore it to a wedding (very successfully!) and then somehow it disappeared. I wasn't living at home, then, or I would have accused my mother of swiping it.  For my own good. But I loved it.

But now--I haven't worn a pantsuit since then....well, I had a gorgeous one, actually maybe in the 90s? Navy blue, Ralph Lauren, very elegant. That too, is gone, I think consigned.

However. Pussycat bows. Yes, as a young reporter, they were de rigueur.  Here's a TV publicity photo of me in ...1975.



DEBORAH CROMBIE: I don't remember ever having a pantsuit when I was younger. I didn't have jobs that required a suit-y look, which probably tells you something about my income level...

I did buy a pantsuit in 2007, however, when I was invited to speak at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC. I'd just had knee surgery and was still bandaged up, so a skirt suit was not an option. Included in the book festival (which was wonderful!) was a tour of the White House. Here I am in one of the rooms in the East Wing. 



If I ever had a blouse with a pussycat bow, I have conveniently forgotten it.
 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Finally, Hank, a place where our styles intersect. My mother bought me a hot pants pantsuit from Carnaby Street in '69. I loved that thing - I was definitely the coolest girl in 4th grade. Mom, who was much more of a sixties fashionista than you would think of an Army officer's wife, had her own cool pantsuits, at least one with a groovy maxi-vest.

Carnaby Street was my first and last venture into the field, however. When I was working at a nonprofit in DC in the early eighties, it was all about the skirt suits, and even then, due to the "more casual" nature of a museum, most of mine were mix and match rather than the same coat and skirt.

I did have several pussy bow blouses, though, with YUGE shoulder pads. I liked to tie them in an ascot, and I had a whole collection of stickpins I'd put in to hold the stock in place.

I have to say, I really liked Hillary Clinton's tunic-top-and-pants pantsuits. They were somehow both more feminine than the old style pantsuits AND more authoritative. Super pulled-together, but also comfortable. I hope we start seeing more of that style offered in stores.

HALLIE: Share your pantsuit and hot pants pantsuit memories. Did you see wearing it as making a statement, and is there a pantsuit in your future?

54 comments:

  1. A HOT PANTS pantsuit? OMG, ladies. That must have been impressive. Never had one, myself, nor wore a pussy bow (what an icky name, by the way). I had a light blue seersucker pantsuit in the early 80s that I thought was stunning, and I worked in hi-tech with my freshly minted PhD by then so I actually had a few places to wear it. I bought a matching black jacket and pants in 2008 when I was looking for a job, but now I mostly wear the pants and jacket separately to book events. Agree about Hillary's long-jacket suits. She pulled that look off nicely.

    But Roberta, your "suit" in that picture looks really nice and not like a suit, esp with the wide-legged pants! So, question: is a matching top and pants a suit, or does it have to have a jacket of some kind?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got my first pantsuit back in high school. It was basically a turquoise mini dress with matching turquoise bell bottoms. My LAST one was a very businessy beige fitted jacket with trousers. It was polyester and, as Hallie mentioned, it had a tendency to need frequent dry cleanings. As for pussy bows (I have to confess, this is the first time I've heard them called that!), I've had a number of those blouses over the years. Never again though, especially now that I know what they're called!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is making me think of something else that's gone with the dodo: women's tailored trousers. I always had a pair or two of lined black or grey wool. Which brings me to something else: does anyone ever take anything to the dry cleaners these days? Only coats for me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, I think a pantsuit has to be pants and a jacket. A beautiful top like Roberta's, that's just pants and a top.
    I think the thing that makes pant suits, the actual jacket and pants, so semi-weird is that they are the female version of man's suit. And somehow, they always look like that.
    Plus, they're not really even comfortable, do you think? They're just awkward. I"d much rather wear a skirt.
    And I wear a skirt suit to work almost every day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Although I do have to say, not many other women at my office wear suits. It's mostly dresses, and often very short ones at that. But that is another blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I wore pantsuits in the sixties, run up by loving hands at home. They were mostly double knit polyester, a boon to a mother of four who hated ironing anything, still do for that matter. Hate ironing, that is.

    In the 70s I wore a white uniform, white shoes, white hose, with pants, no skirts. Do these count? I had a sweet little hat to match too ;) My one accessory was a stethoscope around my neck.

    In the 80s until 2006, when I retired, I wore suits and dresses. The suits often were slacks and jackets, but not infrequently they had skirts. I didn't consider these pant suits at all. I had a whole closet full of good silk blouses, 50 shades of cream, and I'm sure one had a bow at the neck. This was expected management attire. Sometime in the 80s I discovered the joy of the $100 dress, Anne Kline being a favorite. Sigh. Those were the days.

    Now I own precisely one dress, summer linen, maxi-ish, three pairs of dressy pants, a few sweaters and blouses to go with, and that's it. Right now I have on jeans and a great sweater back when Liz Claiborne made nice stuff. I think it is around 20 years old. It's a bit big on me now, but since my outing for the day is walking the dogs, no matter.

    I draw the line at sweatshirts unless I am cleaning the basement or digging in the garden. Yoga pants? What are those? And those matched sets with cute little kittens? When I think of my mother-in-law, I think Alfred Dunner and get the giggles.

    Clothes became very unimportant once I retired. I tossed everything into a bin and sent them off to a charity, VOA because they will pick up at the house. Last night we went to a Beaujolais party, and I did put on something besides jeans but was very casual. I sat in a corner for a while and looked at the crowd. Ladies, those block dresses, the ones with a strip of something down the middle and solid sides? Sorry, but they don't make you look a pound lighter and certainly don't hide any bulges. Sleeveless in November on the tundra? Please. You just look cold, and unless you have Michelle Obama arms, best to cover them up. Thigh high boots with stiletto heels? Lots of luck. This function was held on the stage of the Hochstein Theater, and I was holding my breath every time you tottered on the proscenium. Plunk!

    Do I sound like a bitter old woman? Sorry, but all that mutton dressed as lamb set me off. What were we talking about again? Oh, pantsuits. Nope, don't own one.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Skirts... lead inevitably to pantyhose. Which have also gone the way of the dodo, thank goodness. Or tights which are usually either too small or bag. Which brings us to: cold legs.

    After Hank's definition I realize I never had an actual pantsuit.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ann, LOVE YA! Right on, girl!
    Alfred Dunner... egads I had one of their suits. Maroon knit skirt and to and jacket.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wait WHAT KIND OF BOW?????

    I think the whole "pantsuit" phase was before me. I've worn dress pants, button-down shirts (I prefer fitted ones, not boxy), and blazers. I'm finally back into a shoe that isn't completely flat, but still no real heels, so I gave the slacks away. Plus, I don't wear them often. I work in tech. It's jeans and wash-n-wear all the way.

    I gave up dry-clean-only when I had small children, although just last winter I bought a sweater from Ralph Lauren that was so impossibly soft I had to buy it. Yeah, it's so impossibly soft because it's merino wool/cashmere. So I'm very careful with it - my one, absolute dry-clean-only piece of clothing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Not that it makes any more sense calling it that.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unless I'm completely blocking it out of memory, I never had a pantsuit or a blouse with a pussycat bow. (I wasn't even sure what the bow was until I googled it!) When I was younger, I preferred skirts, and living on the Cape, the dress code is pretty casual, so suits are a rarity. I remember my sister had a light blue polyester pants suit in sixth grade. We have the pictures to prove it, which we get almost as good a laugh out of as my brother's red plaid sports coat from around that time!

    I did have several pairs of hot pants, though, which I wore to school in junior high. I can't believe my mother let me out of the house like that!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Roberta, I think you should HOST a gangster party!

    I used to sew all my own clothes, and about half of my mother's, too, since she worked in an insurance company office, and was trying to hold our family's body and soul together on the tiniest salary imaginable. I clearly remember making her fancy pantsuits to wear dancing (Mother was a super dancer, and a popular partner a couple nights a week, the gay divorcee, you know).

    The first actual pantsuit (of many) I can remember making myself was a bordeaux-red, brushed corduroy, with a fitted peplum waist, rounded lapels and puffed shoulders, with high-waisted, bellbottom pants. Back then I usually made all my pants because I was skinny and had really long legs, and storebought pants were always too high-water.

    When I sold insurance in the 70's, I started wearing power suits (never with really big shoulders, though) for giving myself authority I didn't naturally possess. However, they were usually skirt suits. And I did have a couple blouses with bows, but they didn't really flatter me, so mostly hung in the closet. Loved ascot ties, though, beginning with a blouse I was given for Christmas in fifth grade, with my own monogram on the stock! I had to learn to tie it properly so the embroidery showed. Early fashion training, age 10.

    There is still one silk pantsuit in my closet, usually reserved for wearing to funerals.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hank, I'm betting your lilac linen pantsuit got lost at a dry cleaner someplace. That was the only way to care for them back then.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great news--Quail Ridge Bookstore is not defunct, just moved to a new and wonderful location. I will look for your photo next time I am there. The photos are still in the ladies room!

    ReplyDelete
  15. A pet peeve of mine is that you can't find wool slacks any longer. Neither for women or men. It makes no sense to have a warm top, encased in cashmere and a puffy jacket but only thin polyester on the legs. Lined trousers have gone the way of the dodo.
    I do still take Blazers to the cleaners but would avoid trousers that required cleaning each time I spilled something on them i.e. every time I eat a meal!)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've told this story recently at Facebook, so ignore if you've seen it.

    I went to work at Delta Airlines in Atlanta in 1968. I was originally on board for flight attendant school, but changed my mind and ended up at the jet base in south Atlanta.

    I was a file clerk in the Engineering Dept. Me and 5 other young women in a room full of metal bookshelves full of engineering manuals that we were to keep updated.

    Already you know how much I loved it, right?

    But I got to fly for free - so the benefits were, I though for a short while, worth it.

    1968. Dresses were short. They just were. Not my fault.

    But, I would get sent hom every so often to change into a dress they felt would be more appropriate - meaning, not so short. Amazingly, some days dresses that I had been sent home for previously were okay.

    I had bought a gorgeous pantsuit. I'll never forget it. It truly was one of my favorite things I've ever owned. I got it at a give-away sale price at Saks. Buttery yellow linen.

    I put that on and proudly wore it to work and Oh. My. God. You would have thought I had murdered the Queen.

    "Go Home! Now! You cannot wear pants - INAPPROPRIATE! Go Home!"

    I had taken this nonsense for months and this just pissed me off and I went home and changed into a dress that I had no idea would pass muster or not when I got back.

    But I didn't leave without mouthing off a little, and boy did I pay for it in the months to come.

    Totally unrelated, but anyway - I went through a divorce while I was working for Delta and they made me take my two weeks vacation "until the talk died down." Believe me, there was no scandal, just a marriage that went wrong.

    Needless to say, Delta and I were not a good match and I have a million stories from over the two years I was there.

    I finally left and went to work for the lovely, wonderful, welcoming small regional Southern Airways, where I could wear anything I wanted and we all loved one another, and still do.

    Pussy bows? Yes, I remember wearing them, but I don't recall that that's what they were called.


    ReplyDelete

  17. Hot pants pantsuits, yes!!!! And worn with boots! I loved that look!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. A WHAT kind of bow? I'm 40, so I'm showing my ignorance I guess...but THAT is what they called the bows my mom wore to work?? Yikes. Someone call Lena Dunham, she's going to want to buy a bunch.

    Through the early 80s I watched my glorious mom dress formally for her business-setting jobs...and I imagined her in the late 60s at age 19, with her matching hat and gloves, setting off for her first role as a secretary at Sears & Roebuck downtown Chicago (how glamorous!)...I adored her matching pant suits and skirt suits. I definitely love a good blazer and pant set, although I often wear a Wonder Woman t-shirt under the jacket, when I can get away with it.

    Thank you for the fantastic discussion: I cannot believe women had dress code obligations on them into the 1990s, in government jobs and elsewhere. Younger women really need to hear these stories.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ha ha ha ha! I love that picture. The reds rocking the pantsuits! No pantsuits here, however, no skirts either. I was, am, and always will be a jeans, combat boots, and pea coat kind of gal (the punk rock is strong in this one). Although, now if the situation was required, I could totally wear a pantsuit, preferably made of denim with skulls on it. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Kaye, that's a great story. And I want that pantsuit. Thinking I'm glad I never worked for an airline.

    Christine, gloves! Oh gosh, white gloves. Had to wear them to my elementary school graduation. My mother didn't wear gloves, or I don't remember them if she id. She was a screenwriter who wore tailored skirted suits (the silk jacket linings matched the tops she wore under them). Never ever pants except at home on weekends.

    ReplyDelete
  21. A pantsuit with denim and skulls? Jenn, that could be arranged. Doc Martens or high-tops??

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jenn, you totally rock!

    And so do REDS in our pantsuit photo! Hallie, that is brilliant!! I would wear that purple number.

    I hardly send anything to the dry cleaners these days. Scarves (two I wore for month in London MUST go tomorrow) and maybe the occasional jacket in the winter. Almost everything now that I used to dryclean is handwash/hang dry and for most I just use the delicate cycle in my washer. Does that mean I'm doing my bit to save the environment?

    ReplyDelete
  23. The one and only pantsuit I ever bought was from Banana Republic in 2000. It was gray, that's all I remember. I wore it to my sister-in-law's wedding in England, without a hat. Being American, I was largely unaware that hats were a thing at English weddings. Not that I felt out of place. Well, I did, but not because I didn't wear a hat. It was my first time meeting my English husband's extended family and even after 18 years of marriage, I still sometimes feel out of place.

    Oh wait, we were talking pantsuits. I'm pretty sure I only wore it the once. There was never any occasion after that and it eventually went out of style. But it was a nice suit.

    ReplyDelete
  24. And doesn't Rhys look fabulous in that picture Hallie created?

    ReplyDelete
  25. When did the term "Pussy bow" come to be? I had never heard it before. I have had my share of pants-suit-ish outfits. Very comfortable. I have one that is a rust/reddish Alfred Dunner that I swear is 35 years old. The fabric seems to be related to iron.

    Love the stories and pictures. Fashion is so strange!!

    ReplyDelete
  26. I love the top image! Made me smile--much needed these days. I can't remember ever wearing a pantsuit--but I must have, right? Because I worked in finance and corporate environments for a long while? I must have blocked the memory. :-) Pussy bows? Never, that I know.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Phyllis, I'm so so glad to hear that Quail Ridge is not gone!!

    Karen, ok to the gangster party. Maybe at Bouchercon??

    ReplyDelete
  28. I have never had a pantsuit, nor have I ever had a blouse with a pussycat bow. "Blouse" is one of those words that now cracks up my teenage nieces, kind of like the way my sisters and I laugh when my mom says "slacks." Here's a dress code story: when my family was stationed at Fort Polk in Louisiana (before my time ;)during the Vietnam War,)my mom remembers going to the PX for groceries, and her skirt had to be a certain length. If the length was questionable, they (not sure who, the skirt police?) would test it by having the woman kneel. If the hem touched the ground, she was good to go. If not, back to base housing to change into something more suitable. Perhaps a long skirt with a pussycat bow blouse!

    ReplyDelete
  29. That's an incredible story, Ingrid. Sheesh. I'd heard about that kneeling things for testing skirt lengths at schools, but at the PX? Talk about infantalizing women.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Roberta, you're on, and I'm in!

    Speaking of gloves, my son in-law's mother was the fashion editor of the Dayton Daily News for many years, and asomwwhat of a protégé of Diana Vreeland. Jan was very fashionable in her time, and had some exquisitely lovely hats and gloves, which we found when emptying her home after her death a few years ago. I brought some home with me, to remember her by. Beautifully made kid and leather gloves, you just can't get those any more, without paying a king's ransom.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I like pantsuits with Long jackets that covers the hip. I never liked waist length jackets, especially on people with big hips!

    About cold winters, when I lived in DC, I wore dark leggings under my dress suits. If there was a pantsuit in my size, I would have gotten one. I wore many layers under the leggings and the suit.

    Diana

    ReplyDelete
  32. I remember buying at least one pantsuit for my honeymoon attire in 1976, but I remember more about the short dresses and skirts I wore in the early 70s. My mother had told me at one point that dresses would get longer again, and I argued that I would never wear a long dress. Now, of course, I want dresses below my knees. Mothers are always right. And, I did have some pussycat bow blouses, but I didn't know that's what they were called.

    Hallie, I had a pale or powder blue pantsuit made out of stretchy material, too. I loved the color of it, but the stretchy part, not so much. I wish I could find a picture of me in it.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I never had a pantsuit. Did, at one time, have a hot pants suit. That was back when I had great legs, so I loved wearing it.

    As for work--I was a nurse. In the Army, it was their white uniform. Even then, it pants, rather than wearing the older white uniform dress. Then it was scrubs, followed by years of wearing a flight suit. With High-Tec boots. In Texas, events meant wearing starched jeans with cowboy boots. And having hat hair from your cowboy hat. I bought one beautiful deep purple pantsuit when I went to work as a case manager, then switched to wearing scrubs in the particular color for case managers. Seemed patients and family felt more comfortable when I looked like a "nurse". So that lovely suit went to our local charity shop.

    Never any blouses with the "pussy" bow. Never knew they were called that.

    So interesting hearing the stories!

    ReplyDelete
  34. We had that skirt test st school, Ingrid! But--it was so long ago --we were not allowed to wear pants!

    ReplyDelete
  35. And I am howling at "slacks." I still call them "purses," too, which I guess is not done....

    ReplyDelete
  36. Diane & Hank, what's the story with the hot pants? Are those just really tight pants? Spandex? The image that comes to mind is Olivia Newton John at the end of "Grease." Would jeggings be the modern equivalent?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Hot pants were--are?-- very tailored elegant shorts. Not tight. Like a mini-skirt, but shorts .
    I know-- The more we talk about it the more hideous it sounds. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  38. Oh, we definitely need a lesson in hot pants. AKA short shorts. 1970s. I had a hot pants jump suit that I loved.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Farmer jeans--with bell bottoms--paired with platform shoes. There are NO pictures. I'm so glad there was no Internet back then!

    Also, yes to the blouse with the "power tie." Ah, the 70s and 80s.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I am so incredibly grateful that my first reaction was, "What the h--- is a pussy bow?" (And then, after looking it up, secondarily grateful to be able to say that, no, I never owned one, and can absolutely assert that I will never own a pussy ANYTHING at this point.)

    ReplyDelete
  41. Just when I thought this couldn't get any better...a hot pants jump suit, Hallie?! Fingers crossed there are photos.

    ReplyDelete
  42. And, Hank, I call them purses. Is that no longer done? Yet another way in which language slips me by and I'm left grasping at the painter...

    ReplyDelete
  43. I still have one designer bow blouse - it is lovely but I'm not sure I'll ever wear it gain. Suits with pants, definitely, but is that what the pants suit is? I don't have to dress for the office any more but I have a gorgeous Rive Gauche double breasted jacket suit with a shirt and slacks that cost the moon, so I cannot bear to give it up. These days, it's stretch jeans and casual cashmere sweaters - my cats and I are so hard on my clothes that I frequently buy the sweaters at a la de dah consignment store in SF for ¼ of their original price, just right for me.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hallie - I did too! AND, I had a some denim hot pants overalls! LOL!!!

    ReplyDelete
  45. I am an attorney in casual California. Uf I need ti be formal,I I wear a pantsuit, jacket and pants, though I mix them up a lot. In the office nice pants, some kind of shirt and a blazer only as necessary. I always were nice boots, never traditional heels, don"t own any. I never wear skits or dresses.

    I wore hot pants in middle school and high school, but a never as a suit.

    I never had the type of blouse mentioned. :)

    ReplyDelete
  46. Sorry If not Uf and wear not were. I'm on my phone, excuse the typos.

    ReplyDelete
  47. I've always had a strong negative reaction to pussycat bows (you're right, Hank, it's pussycat, not pussy), and I would never think of wearing one myself, even though they were everywhere for a few years. A visceral reaction, even--couldn't tell you why. Maybe I was strangled in a previous life. As for pantsuits, I remember the first one I was "allowed" to wear at work in the early 1970s. It was matching pants and top, not jacket, and all of the men teased us women that we were wearing our pajamas to work. I liked pantsuits a lot more than skirt suits and enjoyed wearing them with a nice blouse or top. But even before I retired in 2015, there were very few to be seen in Silicon Valley. Jackets no longer matched pants--too "matchy matchy," we were told by the "What Not to Wear" pundits. And, we're all about "business casual" in Silicon Valley, and as an HR manager, I sometimes had to define that for our employees.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Can you not say "purse" anymore? I do say "bag" or "handbag" more often than not, because in Brit-speak, a purse is something you put your coins in. So confusing!

    ReplyDelete
  49. I hated wearing skirts in New England weather. As soon as pantsuits came in, I ditched my skirt suits, especially when I worked in a start up where I was on the road flying across the country every week for the first year. Pants are definitely more comfortable on a plane! My favorite suit was a dark navy pinstripe which I wore with a grayish-purple silk blouse.

    I still love fine wool pants, although they usually have a bit of blend in them.

    Apparently, pussy bows are coming back in as part of the "retro" fashion. I wore them in the mid-eighties when I worked as a consultant in Boston for Ernst & Whiiney. When I moved to California, I was pulled aside by some of the women consultants there, who said "lose the tie and suits." California was a few years ahead of the East Coast in women's work fashion.

    ReplyDelete
  50. I never took a job where I was told I had to wear a dress. Except acting. I don't think I ever played a part that required it except once in summer stock in Michigan. I was always a boy. That was fine with me.

    ReplyDelete
  51. No pussycat bows, but I did wear pantsuits. These days, I mostly wear dresses or skirts for work . . . .

    ReplyDelete
  52. I never had a hot pants suit, but I did have two summer suits with short...Bermuda length. In the 80s and 90s, I had a lot of pantsuits. I also had three piece suits: a shirt, a jacket, and pants.

    Although I never heard the term before, I did have a few suits with pussy bow blouses to match. I had a royal purple three piece suit with an ice lavender blouse. Loved it. Wore it out. The other suits were red and black tweed, white, black, Navy blue, and brown. Most were wool and, yes, they went to the dry cleaners.

    Now I only wear pants all the time. Comfortable, cotton knit or jeans.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Real quick FYI....Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh NC is not defunct. It just recently moved to a new location.

    ReplyDelete