Well, ya know, if all fails, Christian Joy calls me from NYC and makes me laugh. Some of her newest dress creations are going to be in England at a museum. The museum is called the Victoria and Albert. Anyway, the museum picked out two dress creations Joy made and have been worn by the famous Karen O. But they want one now that is an original from Christian Joy designs that has never been worn. So Joy explains it so seriously to me on the phone and I am tryin' to keep a straight face. "Mom, it is a dress made out of all kinds of macaroni and pasta. I will dye all of the pasta different colors." I think, if it is true to form, she will buy a prom dress at the Salvation Army and decorate it with pasta. It will be glued on and look like beads. It does sound very pretty. How did I know when I fed her all that macaroni when she was young that she was envisioning wearing it on a dress? Oh, I am guilty. We used to take whole afternoons and make pictures on construction paper with glued on buttons and macaroni.
As Christian Joy and I laughed on the phone, I told her a story about when she was young. I was always making these skirts that were long and straight with a drawstring for a waist. Anyway, I had to go to the hospital and my mom had to take me. As I laid on the table at the hospital my mom says, tugging at my skirt, "What is this, anyway?" I was such an embarrassment to my mother. She always did everything by the style of the day. Well, most mothers did back then. But being a free thinker, I did everything off the wall. Well, it all comes back to me now. "Sorry Mom!"
Often Mom has said to me as I raised my kids, "They get all those crazy ideas from you." Well, Aunt Jill was around, too, and I think she was wilder than me, almost, with her styles. Poor Christian Joy was surrounded by free thinkers and I don't know if I am braggin' or complainin'. A dress made out of macaroni? Well. I have to say it wasn't something I would have thought of but I will be dogged if I ain't a little proud of my Christian Joy!
Her designs are steering away a bit from the punk rockers to more costumes. One year she dressed David up as a mummy for Halloween. She wrapped him in a whole roll of toilet paper. Joy kinda, at this place in the game, lives, I think, at the skinny side of my faith. What I taught her here at home, to some extent, she shouts to the world. She tells her interviewers that her mom taught her to sew when she was 3 years old. Well, I did but Geeeezz!
Love,
Connie
