clothing connections

It amazes me how a piece of clothing can hold years worth of memories.

Tonight, I was watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent with my daughter. It was a re-run about the murder of the female leads' cop husband nine years earlier. While she was looking through the stored evidence box, she pulled out his uniform shirt, held it to her face, and broke down.

That scene reminds me of so many other well written scenes that, with or without words, allow all the feelings associated between people to be related intensely through a piece of clothing.

Here are some of my favorites. Sorry, you're going to have to watch them to get the stories; I hate to be a spoiler!

Message in a bottle: A quiet widower still has his wife's art studio set up two years after her death, down to the slippers under the chair. His new girlfriend explains that her mother kept her father's shirt draped across the back of the bedroom chair for years after his death and that it might still be there, for all she knows. She accidentally leaves a glass of water on the studio desk while looking at the artwork and he gets upset that things are moved. While putting things back, he knocks the glass of water over and it spills on the slippers. This causes him to snap at her as she tries to help him.

Sommersby: This scene cannot be described as it would definitely be a plot spoiler, but it concerns a shirt that a young wife made for her new, uncaring husband, and how it's re-emergence into their life signals a major change in their relationship.

Hope Floats: After her mother's death, a young woman is going through her mother's closet to find a dress. She pulls one out, looks at it, holds it to her face to breathe it in and falls apart. She wears the dress to the funeral and you realise she has "put her mother on" for strength and fortitude.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: a pair of jeans follows four young girls through their experiences. They each pull some sort of courage and connection from the pants.

27 Dresses: About a woman who has been a bridesmaid 27 times. The whole movie addresses her feelings associated with the dresses and the brides she wore them for. It also goes into a family wedding with her Mom's wedding dress and how it effects her. Big spoiler, so no more info.

I can't close this topic without mentioning my favorite song about a piece of clothing, "This Shirt" by Mary Chapin Carpenter. I remember the first time I heard it. It came on the car radio, the night before Easter while I was pulling into a grocery store parking lot. I couldn't turn off the car, or move, until the song was over.

Some feelings are just too powerful. Whether triggered by an item, image or words, a piece of clothing can create a connection between people that it is impossible to explain, or sever.