Literary Inspiration

Hair Jewellery, by Margaret Atwood, holds a special place on my list of favorite short stories. It tells the story of a college student with a prediliction for all things lacrymose, and her tragic, unrequited love affair. She tells the story as a flashback, and recalls her experiences in accordance with what she was wearing when they transposed. Due to her financial situation (she is, after all, a starving college student) all of her clothes are purchased at Filene's Basement, a discount store actually located in a basement. Of her most frequented store, the narrator tells us:

Filene's Basement was, in its own way, tragic. No one went there who did not aspire to a shape-change, a transformation, a new life, but the things never did quite fit.

-Margaret Atwood, Hair Jewellery

Two pieces of the narrator's wardrobe that are omnipresent are her oversized black coat and clunky plastic rain boots.

Hair Jewellery by ameliaantoinette

Next are ill-fitted wool and tweed skirts, head scarves, and a sweater with a hole, burned by the cigarette of her object of affection.

Hair Jewellery Pt. 2 by ameliaantoinette

Last but not least, our narrator is rarely without a suitcase and a stack of ninteenth century Gothic novels. She also enjoys a short trist with a red baby doll nightgown with a broken strap...


Hair Jewellery Pt. 3 by ameliaantoinette