And I'm back.
The second part of this challenge made my head spin. I am, and have been since my memory began, a *reader*. Books have shaped so much of who I am; as Susan Hill puts it: "If you cut me open, you will find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted and transformed into me.” And I have met so many characters over the years, who I live for as many reasons as there are books. How to pick one?
Luckily, as Alasse pointed out, I don’t actually have to choose just one: I can continue to do literary inspired posts for as long as I want. This helped make the decision a bit easier. And then Beth Ann had suggested strong female characters, who would enjoy walking in the woods, and I thought of Mary Russell, whose series (written by Laurie King) I’ve been rereading over the past few months.
When Russell was fifteen, the rest of her family died in a car crash, and she moved from California to Sussex, where her mother’s family hailed from. While wandering about one day, she stumbles over the semi-retired, beekeeping Sherlock Holmes, who quickly discovers she is his match in intellect, observation, and strength of character. He suggests topics of study and becomes a kind of mentor to her, and later, after she’s graduated from Oxford (and, chronologically, WWI ends), she becomes his investigative partner. All of this takes place in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, which is the first book for those who want to meet Russell for yourselves. The rest of the books each focus on a different case, sometimes in England, sometimes abroad, and they’re all fabulous.
Satorially, Russell often finds herself transforming into different characters for undercover work. She’s six feet tall and thin, so she can masquerade as a young man as well as woman. When she’s not working on a case, she’s either at her Sussex farm, taking lots of country walks, and thus wearing sturdy country clothes, or at Oxford doing theology postgrad work. She has long blonde hair, despite the fashionable bobs around her, because she finds it easier to just braid it up out of her way and forget about it than fuss with a hairstyle. She wears spectacles and is almost blind without them. Every so often, she visits London for a session with her mother’s former tailors, an elderly European couple who are 'wizards' and create bespoke garments from luxury fabrics (sometimes this is for a case, other times for her own wardrobe), easily affordable thanks to her substantial inheritance.
For the challenge, I assumed Russell was taking a walk in my south Texan woods today, a (mercifully) overcast July day with a high of 96F/35C. Since she lives in the early 1920s, I stuck with woven fabrics and as Russell would probably want to spot wildlife in the woods, I used muted colours that would blend in. I decided that after dressing as a man on more than one occasion, she’d want trousers, in a looser style both for the heat and historical feel. I opted for this new-to-me grey pair, which are a delicious woven rayon, and impossibly comfortable. In deference to the neighbors’ sensibilities, and in a nod to Amelia Bloomer and the suffragist movement in general, I added a dress over top in a sturdy woven cotton that is comfortable in the heat but not vulnerable to any potential sylvan damage. The shirt dress style and pinstripe fabric reminds me of ‘factory girls’ of this era. I buttoned the buttons down low enough to preserve my modesty (aka they cover the trouser ‘split’) but left the bottom ones open for maximal striding potential, a bit like a riding habit’s split skirt. Both the dress & trousers have generous pockets, a must for carrying about a detective’s bits & bobs, as well as storing anything interesting found on the walk.
Russell doesn’t really wear jewelry, but I wanted to bring in her taste for luxury fibers somehow. First I added a silk cami under the dress, but of course you couldn’t see that in photos. So then I added a little silk necktie instead, in a soft white that echoes the buttons, which gave it a bit of a jaunty feel. I put my hair up in braids and swapped my lipstick for tinted chapstick to make it more subtle. As far as shoes, Russell often wears sturdy brown leather walking boots, but it’s too warm for them. So instead I went with sturdy brown leather walking flats. After the first photo set, I remembered my glasses and added those. I also remembered, in the subsequent photos, that Russell is very tall, so I drew myself up as straight and long as my sixty-three inches allow.
While I was nervous at first, thinking I wouldn’t be able to manage a good outfit, in the end I had great fun trying combinations & tweaking details. I plan to wear it on a walk in the woods later today (sans glasses), as I think it will be fabulous! I’ve been wearing it around the house today, and it’s comfortable and keeps me cool. I think I’m reasonably close to Mary Russell’s spirit as well, and am suddenly struck with the urge to hole up in an old library and learn Hebrew and New Testament Greek. Anyone who enjoys books with strong, smart female characters and a narrative sense of humor should give this series a go as well: it’s clearly written for bibliophiles and is the ultimate in comfort reading.
Thank you again Beth Ann, for coming up with such wonderful challenges for me: they were so true to who I am but at the same time pushed me and introduced me to new things (still listening to a lot of Debussy). I’m sure I’ll be deriving inspiration for these ideas far into the future!
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