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You are here: Home / Unspoken Word

Unspoken Word

by John Cole|  August 2, 20109:59 am| 120 Comments

This post is in: Bring on the Brawndo!, Our Failed Media Experiment

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Please just kill me:

Chelsea Clinton isn’t the first presidential daughter who has tried to keep private the details of her wedding day. “I feel that marriage vows are sacred, and I hope that mine will be spared the hurly-burly attending a news event,” Margaret Truman said before her 1956 nuptials in Missouri. At least she and the groom, Clifton Daniel, consented to a press conference with 50 reporters.

But Ms. Clinton, 30, was silent in every way except one. Her dress told a lot.

Designed by Vera Wang, the strapless dress consisted of a number of yards of ivory silk organza that had been lightly gathered, with tulle pleated diagonally on the bodice. The dress was finished with a silvery embroidered waistband, not unlike the dresses with dark sashes that Ms. Wang showed in a bridal collection this year.

I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt at the moment (cargo shorts from the JCPenney fat man section, $9.00, t-shirt is grey from the Finish Line four t-shirts for $20.00 collection, accessorized with a set of stylish adidas flip-flops at $24.00, buy one get one half-off at Dicks Sporting Goods). I wonder what that is saying- “Casual, comfortable, an everyman look with a touch of of the refined dignity and sensibilities that one would expect from a cast member of My Name is Earl.”

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Reader Interactions

120Comments

  1. 1.

    flukebucket

    August 2, 2010 at 10:02 am

    I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt at the moment. I wonder what that is saying

    I’m miserable, I might as well be comfortable.

  2. 2.

    Kryptik

    August 2, 2010 at 10:02 am

    Fashion remains an arcane, unbreakable code much more unimpenetrable than any Glenn Beck panic attack.

  3. 3.

    C Nelson Reilly

    August 2, 2010 at 10:02 am

    I’m wearing overalls from the Junior Samples designer collection

  4. 4.

    mr. whipple

    August 2, 2010 at 10:04 am

    “Casual, comfortable, an everyman look

    Everyman doesn’t get pedicures :)

  5. 5.

    Slocum

    August 2, 2010 at 10:05 am

    So she really didn’t engage the press at all? Good for her.
    I can’t imagine where she learned to avoid publicity.

    I’m in shorts and sandals with a beer, Wittgenstein, and Liszt.

  6. 6.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    August 2, 2010 at 10:05 am

    Come on. The serfs have to have some images to show them that if they only work a little harder, they too can have a dress for their wedding. It might not be as expensive as Chelsea’s, and they might have to go to work right after the wedding, but the pictures taken by a friend with a pocket camera will still capture the memories you will cherish after the umpteenth fight with your husband over money.

  7. 7.

    aimai

    August 2, 2010 at 10:06 am

    So, she was wearing an off the rack dress? Says unpretentious and down home to me.

    aimai

  8. 8.

    Violet

    August 2, 2010 at 10:06 am

    This says it all:

    At least she and the groom, Clifton Daniel, consented to a press conference with 50 reporters.

    It’s all about the media. Nevermind what the people actually getting married want. “At least” Margaret Truman “consented” to a press conference! That horrid wench Chelsea wouldn’t even do that much. Ingrate.

    It really is always, always, always all about the media.

  9. 9.

    beltane

    August 2, 2010 at 10:07 am

    Does this article at least tell us what the dress said? What language did the dress speak? Was it a Realamerican dress? I can’t wait to hear what Bristol Palin’s dress has to say.

    No one cares about your shorts and T-shirt. such peasant attire is of no concern to the style columnist of the New York Times.

  10. 10.

    taterstick

    August 2, 2010 at 10:07 am

    Shorts and t-shirt are my state of dress every day until at least October. And I do mean EVERY day.

    Today’s t-shirt is a favorite – limited edition “Obama Surfs!”

    I HATE winter…

  11. 11.

    David in NY

    August 2, 2010 at 10:07 am

    Saw the article in the Times, with picture of Bill and Chelsea coming down the aisle. Dress real nice — better than a T-shirt. Bill looking his age, but carrying less weight than he used to, with the aspect of an aging Texas oil man.

  12. 12.

    David in NY

    August 2, 2010 at 10:08 am

    @Kryptik:

    Fashion remains an arcane, unbreakable code much more unimpenetrable than any Glenn Beck panic attack.

    Yes, and reading about it makes my head hurt.

  13. 13.

    Kryptik

    August 2, 2010 at 10:12 am

    Guh, looking back at my post, I think I just pulled a Palin. Personally, I blame the word ‘inflammable’. Damn thing.

  14. 14.

    Joshua Norton

    August 2, 2010 at 10:12 am

    It’s just too easy for a talentless hack to fall back on the lazy, stupid, cliche place that all reporters now resort to. I saw more than one “Princess Di” reference about Chelsea and her wedding dress – which made absolutely no sense to me at all.

    I guess the new meme will 1. Any famous person + 2. Wedding dress = Princess Di.

    Teh Stupid. It really does burn.

  15. 15.

    Alex S.

    August 2, 2010 at 10:16 am

    The art of fashion eludes me. Photography, too. It gets really bad when I see pictures of fashion.

  16. 16.

    JGabriel

    August 2, 2010 at 10:20 am

    I can’t wait to hear what Bristol Palin’s dress has to say.

    It will say: I’m a virgin.

    Even the Sentinelese of the remote Andaman Islands will be bent double over their spears and fishing traps, laughing their asses off at that one.

    .

  17. 17.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    August 2, 2010 at 10:20 am

    but one get one half-off at Dicks

    I have no idea what that means but I’m compelled to say either “my condolences” or “I think you posted that on the wrong blog”.

  18. 18.

    General Stuck

    August 2, 2010 at 10:21 am

    Designed by Vera Wang, the strapless dress consisted of a number of yards of ivory silk organza that had been lightly gathered, with tulle pleated diagonally on the bodice. The dress was finished with a silvery embroidered waistband, not unlike the dresses with dark sashes that Ms. Wang showed in a bridal collection this year.

    With this knowledge, my day is now complete.

    brains self with rubber mallet.

  19. 19.

    Linda Featheringill

    August 2, 2010 at 10:22 am

    Come on, be fair. You are not getting married today, are you? If you were, you would probably wear the best you could scrape up.

    On the other hand, your outfit cost more than mine. Denim skirt and seersucker blouse. The whole thing cost about 30.00 new, and that was three years ago.

    Does that mean that I win?

  20. 20.

    Punchy

    August 2, 2010 at 10:23 am

    the strapless dress consisted of a number of yards of ivory silk organza that had been lightly gathered, with tulle pleated diagonally on the bodice.

    I haven’t a clue what 75% of these words mean, and am probably better for it.

  21. 21.

    Redshift

    August 2, 2010 at 10:24 am

    How odd. The Times didn’t seem to think there was anything notable about Jenna Bush failing to hold a press conference about her wedding:

    Although the Bush family kept up a strict zone of privacy around the events…

    Nothing about what her dress “said,” either. Perhaps Cheney threatened it with Gitmo if it talked.

  22. 22.

    benjoya

    August 2, 2010 at 10:24 am

    to paraphrase molly ivins, my fashion statment is: guy who wears clothes so he won’t be naked.

  23. 23.

    Gina

    August 2, 2010 at 10:27 am

    I guess they wish she’d have been more like Snooki? I can’t keep it straight, are we supposed to love attention whores for their whole plucky upstart vibe, and hate people who seek to avoid publicity for nothing, or the other way around?

  24. 24.

    Emma

    August 2, 2010 at 10:28 am

    It was a nice dress. It was Vera Wang. Vera Wang sells dresses to measure and off the rack. It is quite likely that Chelsea saw something she liked in the off-the-rack collection and it was customized for her. Prices run from around $4,000 to the stratosphere. Vera Wang does this for thousands of brides every year, and not all of them are celebrities. Chelsea Clinton and her parents have the money to pay for the dress.

    End of story.

  25. 25.

    pk

    August 2, 2010 at 10:28 am

    the strapless dress consisted of a number of yards of ivory silk organza that had been lightly gathered, with tulle pleated diagonally on the bodice.

    I haven’t a clue what 75% of these words mean, and am probably better for it.

    It means the dress cost an arm and a leg.

  26. 26.

    PTirebiter

    August 2, 2010 at 10:28 am

    …grey from the Finish Line for t-shirts for $20.00 collection

    At that price, I hope you’re talking 3-pk.

  27. 27.

    The Moar You Know

    August 2, 2010 at 10:28 am

    Come on. The serfs have to have some images to show them that if they only work a little harder, they too can have a dress for their wedding. It might not be as expensive as Chelsea’s, and they might have to go to work right after the wedding, but the pictures taken by a friend with a pocket camera will still capture the memories you will cherish after the umpteenth fight with your husband over money.

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): I’m right in the middle of the process. The fucking wedding mafia in this country is more shameless than the Wall Street/Goldman Sachs baronies and probably make more money. Sweet Jesus on a popsicle stick, the predatory nature of the marriage business is something I could not have imagined. Forget payday lenders. Forget used car salesmen. Forget all that. You want to find a soulless butcher who would carve a child’s organs out of their living body and sell them for pocket change, go walk into a bridal store.

  28. 28.

    Ash Can

    August 2, 2010 at 10:29 am

    Oh hell, fashion writing has been like this forever. Just ignore it.

    And man, you paid up for your outfit. I’m wearing a long, comfy Fitigues cotton knit dress that I got for a buck at a garage sale.

  29. 29.

    Jager

    August 2, 2010 at 10:29 am

    The LA Times Mag had a fashion photoshoot yesterday of Dodger Andre Ethier, somehow they made him look super gay. Not as gay as they shot Kobe, but close. If they shoot a gay man in the future, will they make him look straighter than Clint Eastwood? BTW, Andre revealed something I thought immpossible, he can get take out from Mozza.

  30. 30.

    R-Jud

    August 2, 2010 at 10:30 am

    @Alex S.:

    The art of fashion eludes me.

    Eh. It’s kids playing dress-up, only they have a lot more money to throw around.

    Personally, I kind of enjoy it. I don’t care about the labels, and the writers are all hyperbolic in the extreme, but the fantasy aspect can be fun. And a lot of the clothes, even the ones that aren’t meant to be worn, as such, are beautifully created.

  31. 31.

    Chyron HR

    August 2, 2010 at 10:31 am

    silk organza

    Didn’t Jimmy Smits play him in the prequels?

  32. 32.

    schrodinger's cat

    August 2, 2010 at 10:32 am

    Are you wearing sandals, to show off your pedicure?

  33. 33.

    Luzeelu

    August 2, 2010 at 10:33 am

    I’m wearing nice comfy knit pants and a t-shirt I got at Goodwill.

  34. 34.

    General Stuck

    August 2, 2010 at 10:34 am

    diagonally on the bodice.

    The word “bodice” always catches my attention. It makes me think of saloon girls for some strange reason.

  35. 35.

    Paris

    August 2, 2010 at 10:34 am

    You realize you were reading the ‘fashion’ section of the Times, right? Who would read that?

  36. 36.

    joe from Lowell

    August 2, 2010 at 10:35 am

    Is the big deal here supposed to be that the dress isn’t white?

    Anyway, I think it’s a very nice dress, and her father must have been proud.

  37. 37.

    Dave

    August 2, 2010 at 10:36 am

    This post reminds me of Russell Baker’s classic 1975 column “Francs and Beans” which he wrote as a parody of Craig Claiborn’s dinner review of a $4,000 meal at Chez Denis in Paris.

  38. 38.

    Alex S.

    August 2, 2010 at 10:37 am

    @R-Jud:

    I wonder who is wearing these kinds of clothes, the ones you linked to. They’re made for the servants of a fantasy kingdom. And a lot of the other things you get to see during fashion week and similar events are only meant to provoke or to be hilarious, it seems to me.

  39. 39.

    Ash Can

    August 2, 2010 at 10:38 am

    @The Moar You Know: When I got married, I avoided bridal stores like the plague. I saw a dress I liked in a Laura Ashley catalogue and found a crackerjack dressmaker who whipped up an approximation of it. And I had my matron of honor and bridesmaid head off to the department store of their choice and buy something elegant and practical that they liked and would wear again. They ended up with beautiful navy blue outfits. We all looked terrific and avoided untold stress in the process.

  40. 40.

    Redshift

    August 2, 2010 at 10:44 am

    @The Moar You Know: Heh. Ms. Redshift and I got married on our own dime when we were pretty young, and I don’t recall a lot of trouble with the bridal store, but the reception hotel was constantly trying to push us to spend more. They tried to tell us we really had to have an open bar, and we countered with “her mother’s family is Mormon.” They didn’t know exactly what it meant, but it completely flummoxed them.

    (It was technically true, but we didn’t tell them that no one from that side of the family was actually coming to the wedding…)

  41. 41.

    p.a.

    August 2, 2010 at 10:44 am

    “Casual, comfortable, an everyman look with a touch of of the refined dignity and sensibilities that one would expect from a cast member of My Name is Earl.”

    ‘Workaday West Virginia Wear’, or the answer to the question ‘What does an Appalachian groom wear to his wedding?’

  42. 42.

    New Yorker

    August 2, 2010 at 10:44 am

    I’ve got on a pair of Adidas running shoes, cargo shorts from Old Navy, and a Montreal Expos t-shirt (seriously) I got from some online vendor in Toronto.

  43. 43.

    Svensker

    August 2, 2010 at 10:48 am

    Hey, we got married in a Jersey courthouse that was undergoing renovation, so everybody who was there for court business that day had to sit in one room and wait to get called. So there I was in my nice navy linen dress holding a bouquet of white daisies sitting right next to the bums who’d been picked up the night before for drunk and disorderly and a couple of lower level mobsters. But typical Jersey, one of the bums yelled at the others, “Shaddup youse guys, dere’s a LADY in heeya!” They were very polite.

    Take that, Vera Wang.

  44. 44.

    Lisa

    August 2, 2010 at 10:49 am

    She looked pretty. She is a lovely girl and the wedding looked like it was really nice.

    I know, I would never make it at the NY Times with that description.

    Their fashion psychology thing is so ridiculous.

  45. 45.

    General Stuck

    August 2, 2010 at 10:49 am

    @Svensker: LOL, my kind of wedding.

  46. 46.

    apocalipstick

    August 2, 2010 at 10:50 am

    I’m wearing clothing I stripped from the body of a dead hobo.

    I guess I win the anti-fashion contest.

    My mother made my wife’s wedding dress. Even went so far as to show up before the wedding and sew my lovely bride into the garment for a truly custom fit. Best-looking dress ever. Cost a grand total of $87 for materials.

  47. 47.

    El Cruzado

    August 2, 2010 at 10:53 am

    Pants. Definitely pants.

  48. 48.

    Rick Taylor

    August 2, 2010 at 10:55 am

    We were too hard on Nero. At least when he fiddled, he may have played some worthwhile music.

  49. 49.

    slag

    August 2, 2010 at 10:56 am

    @Redshift:

    Perhaps Cheney threatened it with Gitmo if it talked.

    Ha!

    I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt at the moment (cargo shorts from the JCPenney fat man section, $9.00, t-shirt is grey from the Finish Line four t-shirts for $20.00 collection, accessorized with a set of stylish adidas flip-flops at $24.00, buy one get one half-off at Dicks Sporting Goods).

    You should seriously consider your local thriftstore next time you go shopping. You could probably find some good stuff there at less than half the price. Used also, so you won’t be violating any DFH dress codes.

  50. 50.

    twiffer

    August 2, 2010 at 10:57 am

    @Redshift: heh. with my family, open bar is required. for any event.

  51. 51.

    Rosalita

    August 2, 2010 at 10:57 am

    yeah well when/if I get married I’ll get a special dress too. it’s a special day.

  52. 52.

    Ash Can

    August 2, 2010 at 11:01 am

    @Svensker: That’s a great story!

  53. 53.

    kay

    August 2, 2010 at 11:03 am

    She looked great. She has good shoulders.

    This made me laugh a little though:

    Her bridesmaids each wore a strapless gown in lavender chiffon with a plum-colored bow.

    Now they own a purple gown with a purple bow, so that’s handy to have. For….prom.

  54. 54.

    Grisha

    August 2, 2010 at 11:04 am

    a set of stylish adidas flip-flops at $24.00

    Jesus, are they covered in yards of ivory silk organza that had been lightly gathered or something? You can get flip-flops for $2 at Walgreens or CVS.

  55. 55.

    JGabriel

    August 2, 2010 at 11:04 am

    @apocalipstick:

    My mother made my wife’s wedding dress.

    You know a Freudian would have a field day with that.

    .

  56. 56.

    burnspbesq

    August 2, 2010 at 11:06 am

    I’m the upscale version of our genial host: Under Armour and New Balance. Working at home today.

  57. 57.

    apocalipstick

    August 2, 2010 at 11:06 am

    @JGabriel:
    Screw Freud. $87 for a dress that would cost in the high four figures from a bridal shop? Best wedding present my mom could give us.

  58. 58.

    burnspbesq

    August 2, 2010 at 11:09 am

    @kay:

    Hopefully the bridesmaids won’t all unload their dresses at the same Junior League thrift store. Would be a catastrophe if two girls showed up at next year’s Horace Greeley or Fox Lane High senior proms in the same dress.

  59. 59.

    maya

    August 2, 2010 at 11:11 am

    Whatever Chelsea wore at her wedding will pale in insignificance to what Kathryn Rodgers-Limbaugh will wear at her divorce announcement.

  60. 60.

    Allan

    August 2, 2010 at 11:11 am

    Designed by Vera Wang, the strapless dress consisted of a number of yards of ivory silk organza that had been lightly gathered, with tulle pleated diagonally on the bodice. The dress was finished with a silvery embroidered waistband, not unlike the dresses with dark sashes that Ms. Wang showed in a bridal collection this year.

    Translation: Hillary (ivory silk organza) will be resigning as SoS in 2011 (lightly gathered) and announcing her intention to primary Obama (tulle pleated diagonally on the bodice) with Bill as her running mate (finished with a silvery embroidered waistband).

    I got good at this deconstruction by reading PUMA blogs, where I learned how to decode the significance of Hillary’s many different-colored pantsuits.

  61. 61.

    mclaren

    August 2, 2010 at 11:11 am

    Yeah, well, the consolation is that this marriage ain’t gonna last real long. When Chelsea’s hedge fund trader hubby gets indicted and dragged off in ankle chains for SEC violations, the annulment that follows will signal “a period of retreat for the grieving former Mrs. Con Artist at her compound in the Antiguas.” Followed by the customary trip to the Betty Ford Center, the usual detox sessions with ibogain, surgery for the cocaine corrosion of the nasal cavities, and then of course the bulimia counseling. Leading to the requisite flings with Greek and Maltese businessmen 30 years older, screaming matches at five star restaurants, and midnight chases out of Parisian hotels with cars full of paparazzi in pursuit.

    The children of rich famous people don’t end well. They tend to get found by the maid, face down, stone cold and blue-lipped in a pool of their own puke in Hilton presidential suites.

  62. 62.

    aimai

    August 2, 2010 at 11:14 am

    Oh for god’s sake do you realize that all these “I spent fitty’ cents on my wedding and I’m the better for it” is starting to sound like the Four Yorkshirmen Sketch?. Weddings can be nice, they can be very important, and they can be celebrated. If you are lucky enough to have family and friends that you want to celebrate with, and the money to host them, you should rejoice. Whatever you spend, or had spent on you, be happy. Its not a competition.

    aimai

  63. 63.

    JGabriel

    August 2, 2010 at 11:15 am

    apocalipstick:

    Screw Freud. $87 for a dress that would cost in the high four figures from a bridal shop?

    (In elaborate, overenunciated, fake German by way of Hollywood accent:)

    No doubt that vos a nice present. So… tell us about your mother, Herr Apocalipstick.

    .

  64. 64.

    bemused

    August 2, 2010 at 11:17 am

    @Lisa:
    Yes, it is. I had no idea there were fashion psychology columns. How did John end up there?

  65. 65.

    ArchTeryx

    August 2, 2010 at 11:18 am

    @Svensker: You win the thread by unanimous judge’s decision.

  66. 66.

    CynDee

    August 2, 2010 at 11:21 am

    @Kryptik:

    Guh, looking back at my post, I think I just pulled a Palin.

    Naah, because we can tell what you meant to say. You actually had something to say that everyone can understand and is applicable to the situation.

  67. 67.

    burnspbesq

    August 2, 2010 at 11:21 am

    @mclaren:

    What a bitter, pathetic little person you are. I pity you.

  68. 68.

    General Stuck

    August 2, 2010 at 11:24 am

    @mclaren: Here comes Mclaren with the morning exhaust fumes.

  69. 69.

    tim

    August 2, 2010 at 11:25 am

    I wish the Clintons had opted for a quiet, subdued, classy, low key wedding without all the ostentatious bullshit this one exhibited.

    But alas, they did not, and opted instead for the typical vulgarity of the American overclass.

    Sad. and gross.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2010 at 11:29 am

    Your mention of Dicks Sporting Goods reminds me of a funny I’ve been meaning to share. Not far from where I live there is a big mall-y (well, strip mall-y) place with a bunch of stores like Dicks, a multiplex, Babies’R’Us, Wolf’s Camera, and the like. Sitting in traffic a few weeks ago, I noticed that the big sign near the entrance which lists all the stores — if you look at it *just right* with a little curbside tree obscuring part of it — reads “Babies’R’Dicks.” Makes me LOL every time, but I never remember to take my camera.

  71. 71.

    Ash Can

    August 2, 2010 at 11:31 am

    @tim: You’re just honked off that you weren’t invited. We know.

  72. 72.

    Allan

    August 2, 2010 at 11:34 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: I wonder what kind of family shops at Kid Sex Change.

  73. 73.

    Emma

    August 2, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Aimai: Thank you.

  74. 74.

    CynDee

    August 2, 2010 at 11:36 am

    What the dress told is “She looks pretty and we’re all happy for her.”

  75. 75.

    Betsy

    August 2, 2010 at 11:37 am

    @JGabriel:
    Are there really still Freudians anymore?

    As to the column, I can’t get worked up about it. It’s in the Styles section, by their fashion writer. Writing about the wedding dresses of famous pretty women is the entire point of having a fashion section. It’s like complaining that the zebra has too many stripes.

  76. 76.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    August 2, 2010 at 11:39 am

    @aimai: I actually find it as inexorable as Godwin’s law. That is, in discussions of almost anything online, the probability of parodying the Four Yorkshiremen sketch approaches zero. Especially if it’s about computers.

    “Hard drive? Looxury! Oh, we used to dream of havin a “hard drive”, used to have to cut punch cards out of solid rock wit’ teeth, and trolls meant real trolls, would grab ye and pull ye under the bridge and eat ye…”

  77. 77.

    Butch

    August 2, 2010 at 11:39 am

    Speaking of words I don’t know…A couple of years ago I got stuck helping decorate the reception hall for an upcoming wedding. The bride to be told me to “hang the tulle over the doors.” I heard it as “tool” and I guess the blank look on my face in reaction said everything that needed to be said, as I was wondering about screwdriver versus hammer.

  78. 78.

    Betsy

    August 2, 2010 at 11:41 am

    @aimai:
    Win.

  79. 79.

    Betsy

    August 2, 2010 at 11:46 am

    @Paris:

    You realize you were reading the ‘fashion’ section of the Times, right? Who would read that?

    Sadly, anyone who wants to read about gender in the workplace, for one. They stick all the articles that might vaguely relate to the laydees in the Styles section, including pieces on employment legislation, pay discrepancies, leave policies, and discrimination that ought to be in the business or national sections (or occasionally the Science section, if it’s about new research).
    What makes it especially depressing to me is that it’s not just women that need to know about these things, but by putting it in the Styles section, they virtually guarantee that most men won’t read them.

  80. 80.

    CynDee

    August 2, 2010 at 11:55 am

    @mclaren: Be careful, dearest, what you despise, lest you become it. You’re making yourself miserable, and you don’t deserve to be.

  81. 81.

    R-Jud

    August 2, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    @Alex S.:

    I wonder who is wearing these kinds of clothes, the ones you linked to.

    It was art, yo. He wasn’t making them for anyone to wear. He was just designing clothes. Like painters painting. I agree that the hullabaloo that goes with fashion is ridiculous, but I admire the skill that went into it.

  82. 82.

    Sentient Puddle

    August 2, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    With all of this fashion talk, I’m reminded of high school prom. A girl asked me out, and knowing my general attitude about the whole thing, she said she’d be OK if I wore a bathrobe to it. I still didn’t go. Kind of wish I did in retrospect.

    I got no good wedding stories. Only one in recent memory was my sister’s wedding, and I dressed up for that. Because she’s my sister. That and I was literally handed my outfit and told “Here, wear this.”

  83. 83.

    suzanne

    August 2, 2010 at 12:09 pm

    Heh. My first wedding was in Vegas, and I was seven months pregnant. I wore some piece of shit dress I found on a sale rack at the maternity store. The person who took our pictures gave me this cheesy bouquet of fake flowers, and posed me holding them “just so” so that I wouldn’t look pregnant in the pictures and told me to lie about the wedding date to our future children. LOL. Is it any wonder the marriage didn’t last? What an auspicious beginning.

    The second wedding was a much bigger deal. Also a much bigger pain in the ass to plan. But the memories we have from that day are wonderful—we even, completely by accident, happened to have the wedding on the 10th anniversary of the Tempe Town Lake, and we got a fireworks show for free. And, if I do say so myself, my dress rocked.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 2, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    I am, of course dressed in a morning coat and striped trousers as any gentleman should be at this time of day. Unless he is at his country place, in which case something frilly from Frederick’s of Hollywood is fine.

  85. 85.

    Tax Analyst

    August 2, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    About and hour ago I just woke up on a couch we have at work. I’m wearing yesterday’s socks and underwear beneath my usual natty work attire of khaki slacks and a cheap short-sleeved dress shirt.

    My morning ass-breath is about to be anointed and tastefully intensified by the subtle fragrance of onions, garlic and congealed and re-heated pepperoni grease from a slice of pizza left over from Saturday night.

    I guess it doesn’t get any better than this. If I could straighten up I would get down on my knees and give thanks that at least my boss hasn’t returned from her Florida vacation yet. Given the rest of my circumstances this morning I was certain she’d be hovering over me when I came to this morning 5 minutes before I was supposed to clock in.

  86. 86.

    Cain

    August 2, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    Heh. My first wedding was in Vegas, and I was seven months pregnant. I wore

    There is a story there, I know it :)

    cain

  87. 87.

    The Dangerman

    August 2, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    Can you imagine the Press if Bubba came out and he stated that he walked Chelsea down the aisle Commando style?

  88. 88.

    Amanda Hugginkiss

    August 2, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    Cathy Horyn is TEH SUCK. She is the one who snarked on Christina Hendricks’s size at the Golden Globes this year, helpfully including a distorted photo of Hendricks to make her point. After dozens of bloggers and NYT commenters called her out, she made a weak retraction.

    I find fashion interesting, but most of her columns just come off as overreaching and snide, with a good measure of waving the perfumed hanky around.

  89. 89.

    Anonymous At Work

    August 2, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    John,
    Deep breath.
    That’s the Fashion section from the main NY daily paper.
    There are such people in the town interested in such (cuz the Journal is a fashion rag).

  90. 90.

    matoko_chan

    August 2, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    @beltane: Bristol Palin isnt getting married…..or…..well…..maybe not to Levi.
    haven’t you heard?
    She moved back home and has “weight gain”.
    I bet Sarah is righteously P.O.

    White Trash White House would make such a great reality show…..kinda like the Beverly Hillbillies go to DC.

  91. 91.

    LikeableInMyOwnWay

    August 2, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    I’m not wearing anything. Are you trying to tell me that almost everybody here doesn’t post in the nude?

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    August 2, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    … is starting to sound like the Four Yorkshirmen Sketch?.

    Bah. Four Yorkshiremen? In my day, we were lucky to have one dead hobo (since appropriated by apocalipstick, dashitall) what we could parody. Right!

    Whatever Chelsea wore at her wedding will pale in insignificance to what Kathryn Rodgers-Limbaugh will wear at her divorce announcement.

    Coming soon to a news feed near you!

    Heh. My first wedding was in Vegas, and I was seven months pregnant.

    What a coincidence! I’m seven months pregnant! Well, at least that’s what my wife tells me I look like.

  93. 93.

    SFAW

    August 2, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    Are you trying to tell me that almost everybody here doesn’t post in the nude?

    We do, but we don’t feel the need to prattle on about it. All the posts about what people are wearing? That’s known as “misdirection”.

    It’s kinda like any right-winger riting about how smart he/she is. Or in Pammy Geller’s case, how sane she is.

  94. 94.

    Ramalamadingdong

    August 2, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    Well I totally love teh fashion and I am wearing a Donna Karan linen jacket, 7 jeans, a white t and I’m rockin’ my Choo’s. Chelsea looked beautiful, the tulle draping accented her tiny waist and the color was stunning on her. Waiting for pic of the bridesmaids dresses – they will set the tone for every wedding for the next 2 years.

    John the reason you had trouble outfitting yourself this weekend is that that you shop at crap stores. Upgrade.

  95. 95.

    D-Chance.

    August 2, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    Whoever selected the NYTimes photograph for that article did no favors for Ms Clinton-Mezvinsky… she looks HORRIBLE in that photo. Strapless was a definite mistake, as was the hair style and dark eye make-up.

  96. 96.

    harlana

    August 2, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    meh. I didn’t see what was so spectacular about the dress, personally, other than the high-dollar designer name. Oh my, another strapless wedding gown. How original, Ms. Wang.

  97. 97.

    Dpirate

    August 2, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    No, it says “bum”.

  98. 98.

    lawnorder

    August 2, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    It says Tunch’s personal servant, Rosie’s playmate and Lily’s chauffeur for walks in the neighborhood :)

  99. 99.

    tim

    August 2, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    @Ash Can:

    yes, that’s it. You are so perceptive.

  100. 100.

    suzanne

    August 2, 2010 at 1:28 pm

    @harlana:

    Oh my, another strapless wedding gown.

    Word. Other than at Mormon weddings, at every wedding I’ve been to in the last seven years, the bride has worn a strapless dress. When choosing mine for my wedding last December, I specifically ixnayed strapless. Snore. I actually much preferred Jenna Bush’s dress.

  101. 101.

    Jared

    August 2, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    “My Name Is Earl.”

    Heh.

    As long as we’re on Jason Lee, his new show is awful, IMHO, just a less sophisticated, cornier version of “Justified” (I assume Lee tried out for Tim Oliphant’s Raylin Givens role, and took “Memphis Beat” as a consolation prize.).

  102. 102.

    QuaintIrene

    August 2, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    I saw more than one “Princess Di” reference about Chelsea and her wedding dress – which

    The media, last week, was doing everything they could to whoop up excitement about this private wedding. ‘Royal american wedding.’ ‘Wedding of the century!’ (we still have 90 years to go, folks.)

    Still, most people living in the real world had other things to worry about.

  103. 103.

    fraught

    August 2, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    @Ash Can:

    Fashion writing has been like this forever.

    And most people who are over 50 do not even see the words when they appear before them because they have no meaning and can only be understood by by a certain sort of person who’s mind goes blank when they read about politics.

    Cathy Horyn writes several of these articles every week for the times. She is highly regarded in fashion. That her words appear on BJ is shockingly dysplastic.

  104. 104.

    Paula

    August 2, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    Bubba lost weight for this. Good for him, and for Chelsea and Hils.

    I’m addicted to that Say Yes to the Dress show, and @ this point I’m pretty goddamn sick of strapless mermaid/princess ball gowns.

    Chelsea looks nice though.

  105. 105.

    gaylib

    August 2, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    “I wonder what that is saying”

    dickhead propagandist, maybe?

  106. 106.

    Paula

    August 2, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    @Jared:

    I saw promos for that show and basically thought, “Oh, did someone want their bargain-basement David Simon music + crimefighting show?”

  107. 107.

    licensed to kill time

    August 2, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    I can’t wait until I am old enough to dress like my 86 yr old landlord. I have never seen him in anything other than one of those Sears all-in-one jumpsuit things with the metal buckle at the waist. It just looks so comfy and you never have to think about what you’re going to wear every day.

  108. 108.

    Southern Beale

    August 2, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    The Robin Givhan Award For Political Asshattery goes to ….

  109. 109.

    fasteddie9318

    August 2, 2010 at 2:21 pm

    I can’t believe they only lightly bunched the organza, instead of tightly winding it. Talk about making a public statement! YOW!

  110. 110.

    abscam

    August 2, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    @tim: Tim’s dress says “Oh fuck, Ash Can is right!”

  111. 111.

    Betsy

    August 2, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    @fraught:

    And most people who are over 50 do not even see the words when they appear before them because they have no meaning and can only be understood by by a certain sort of person who’s mind goes blank when they read about politics.

    Actually, no. Some of us are avid politicos and yet also know what ruching, bias-cut, and organza mean. It’s amazing, but our lady brains can actually do both at once!**

    ** Not suggesting that all or even most women follow fashion, but politics and fashion are no more mutually exclusive than politics and sports.

  112. 112.

    CynDee

    August 2, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    Please just kill me

    Mrs. Bennet: “And OH! Mr. Bennet — you should have seen the lace on Mrs. Hurst’s dress ! !

    Mr. Bennet: “NO LACE, Mrs. Bennet. No lace. I BEG you.”

  113. 113.

    Janus Daniels

    August 2, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    What did you expect from NYT’s “Fashion & Style” page?

  114. 114.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 2, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: Nope. Boxers and…hold on a sec…tank top. I’m thinking fifteen bucks total. I don’t care if the dress was off-the-rack or whatever. It’s a fucking Vera Wang. That means, very expensive. What’s the point? (And that’s not a slam at Chelsea; it’s a slam at the idea of spending a gazillion dollars for one day). Good on Chelsea for not talking to the press.

    @Betsy: Agreed with you on all points. I do not follow fashion, but I do follow sports, and the two are roughly equivalent in how much they matter to actual every day life. Although, the actual quote seems to be dismissing the under-fifty set more than anything, of which I am a member as well.

  115. 115.

    Betsy

    August 2, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:
    Good point.

  116. 116.

    Nellcote

    August 2, 2010 at 7:27 pm

    Does this mean we get a Project Runway thread on Thurs.? It’s 90 min. this season with bonus Santino & Austin roadtrip show!

  117. 117.

    SoINeedAName

    August 2, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    What’s your fucking problem? It’s her damn wedding!

    Get the fuck over it!

  118. 118.

    petorado

    August 2, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    I had no idea this world was filled with so many subtexts — so many things unwritten that were meant as secreted code messages to the broader public, but only if one were so astute as to have access to that Washington Inner Circle decoder ring to decipher them. Thank you New York Times for revealing that Chelsea Clinton didn’t just think her wedding dress was pretty, or cool, or possibly “freakin’ awesome” but instead Chelsea was speaking to a select few in tones of deeper meanings and hidden messages beyond the mere appealing visuals and social cachet of saying in an offhand manner, “Yeah, it’s Vera Wang.”

    What I wait in breathless anticipation for is what Chelsea wore underneath that gown and what it said about the tawdry affair of her father with that … that girl and that cigar, and the Oval Office and wretchedness it dragged this nation through, and how it sullied Sally Quinn’s and David Broder’s happy little town. But, I guess that’s what tomorrow’s New York Times is for.

  119. 119.

    Tehanu

    August 2, 2010 at 11:51 pm

    My wedding dress cost $35 because my sister-in-law made it for me from a Vogue pattern. My daughter-in-law’s dress cost $2,200 from the local wedding shop, which she paid for all by herself. You know what? We were both happy and we both looked nice on the day, and I would be the last to criticize any woman for spending whatever she durn well felt like on her wedding dress. If Chelsea went with the most popular style, how does that make her different from all the other girls who got married in strapless dresses in the last year or so — more worthy of being criticized? As far as I can tell, she’s tried to live her life as normally as possible, and more power to her.

  120. 120.

    FearItself

    August 3, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    I like how you’ve chosen white cheddar Cheetoes instead of the traditional orange ones because of the way the paler Cheeto-dust offers a more subtle contrast against your t-shirt. Blogger fashion is all about that kind of attention to detail.

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