And it seems to me the passing years have affected my vision in other ways as well. At age thirteen, I was an eighth-grade fashionista, poring over magazines and pattern books, with eyes that had 20/20 vision for the subtlest nuances of style and the minutest fashion transgressions! But now that I’m the middle-aged mother of four daughters, clocking countless hours shlepping through clothing stores with them, a funny thing has happened to my eyesight: I’ve lost all ability to distinguish what’s stylish, at least from a teenage point of view!!
Oh, I get the rough outlines okay — like that this year ruffles are good, and that some years flowers are nerdy and other years not (maybe they’re okay with ruffles?). But when my daughter says she needs a black skirt, well, I dutifully prune six black skirts off the rack, and she nixes all of them based on assorted miniscule details that flew right under my radar. Conclusion: I’m no longer able to read the fine print of fashion!
Maybe by now I’ve just watched so many fashions come and go (think peasant blouses, tie-dye, wedge heels) that over-focusing my fashion eyes all those years has left me with blurry vision. Or maybe I’ve just been out of the style loop for too long — I’ve been busy with considerably more weighty matters, like what’s for dinner and the baby’s next diaper.
Then again, despite losing my vision where fashion is concerned, I seem to have developed sharper vision in other areas. For example, recently my daughters were discussing how old one of their teachers is. “She’s, like, maybe forty,” one of them said.
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