Thoughts of a Mad Man

How to describe clothes; random thoughts

She bounced into the room wearing an artsy, tongue-in-cheek dress that looked like it belonged in a museum due to the self-conscious use of straps and zippers. Her slanted stance and sparkling eyes brought it off, though, and I dared to think that she might be as wild and creative as she pretended.

The prompt was, effectively, "How do you describe this dress?"


Of course usually that's too much, but it does give me an idea of how to go about describing clothes. Wearing clothes is an action, which has intended or unintended meanings. So allude to the physical details, attach a meaning, and then hook that to the narrator or POV's actions. Here, we have straps and zippers as the physical, 'self conscious' as the meaning, and 'pretended she was wild and creative' as the interpolated intention. The viewer knows it is intentional, but he is preparing to take her at face value.


Another thing we see here, is that you can surmise something about the Narrator here. In my case, that is that this person, probably a male, is relaxed. He has time to think about her, not only his impression of her but also how that impression came about and what the odds are that it's accurate. He's probably sitting down, with a drink. Also, he's hoping she is a bit wild--not wild and crazy, but wild and creative.


Now none of this is written about him. He isn't even mentioned. I'm wondering if anybody else gets the same impression of him. Or is it a woman sizing up this new female? Love to hear comments.