“Your Wife is a Bad Woman”
I dressed her well…but, it took a while. Twenty tech-time tweaks. That dress needed a pinch and a belt and a pin and a gusset and several small pleats … She got there … after the photographers left the building.
She called me bad after a 5 hour award show that ended with us onstage getting the best musical honor. So, the whole thing did come together. She is kind and patient, so we are all pretty sure she meant it as a compliment.
1 in 7 chance she is wearing a shirt I gave her as you read this. I bring in everything from my own closet and collection for every show. Clothing I bought with no one in mind. Beautiful things in wearable sizes. It was a little selfish to buy these clothes. Any average-sized modern human knows how rare it is to spot something that fits in a vintage store. We are all built bigger now.
That is my best attempt at what she looked like in the shirt by memory…no pink involved…it was just the only color I had in my purse.
One gorgeous black Hawaiian floral shirt from the 80’s that I hoped looked like it was from the 60’s fit her perfectly. Wrong for the show but so right for her. Some things really are just “right”. Like, perfect, correct, spot-on. And it is obvious to everyone immediately. She saw it on the rack and purred about its beauty. When I told her to try it on she had that I-hope-I-hope!-look. It fell on her shoulders like she had worn that rayon in the hot sun for a decade. She wore it out of the fitting and once a week thereafter, I am assuming after wash day.
Actors that love clothing and wear it well are formidable costume designers. Working with them is a nervous-making joy. They let you know what does and does not work and where and when they have seen better. She was one of those. Hitting the same wavelength with folks like her tell me that I am doing the right job.
The New York Times has called this woman ”sterling” and “resplendent” and other shiny silver dollar words.
“Bad” is not a silver dollar word.
Even as a high compliment—it’s a grubby copper penny word. (#200 on the OED’s most commonly used English words index!) Like, you need 100 of my 1 cent ideas to equal her ’sterling’ ‘resplendent’ onstage energy. Boy, did I make her look bad until she looked good.
I think I can be a bad woman in my job if I become a bad woman in the rest of my life.
Read: bad, like the first definition in the OED, adj. poor quality, below standard.
She said ”Your wife is a bad woman.” to my husband. He agreed. I need to stop being medium good at parenting and partnering So I can bring my grubby copper penny ideas to sterling artists like her. My husband will get to read about them here (hi, honey) While he makes dinner and escorts boys to baseball, debate and piano.
You can hear her on Lin Manuel Miranda’s ‘concept album’ for the Warriors musical that is coming out next year. Hopefully she is in the stage version and you can see her resplend onstage.