Category Archives: Fashion

A Facebook friend astonished me last week by complaining about other women wearing black clothing.

“Are we all Italian grandmother widows?” she asked. “No! Then why do people dress that way?”

Here is my very simple answer: It saves time. It makes it easier to put together outfits and get dressed in the morning. All my jewelry coordinates with my black-and-denim wardrobe. It makes it easy to pack for travel. Black doesn’t show the dirt, so less there’s cleaning and no panic attacks about coffee or spaghetti “ruining” a white blouse.

But, most of all, wearing black clothing saves me time because I don’t have to respond to the questions I get when I wear colors (especially those “cheery” pastels). Questions like:

“You look so tired honey, are you getting enough sleep?”

“Have you put on weight?” Followed by “Hey, I know this great gluten-free, lactose-free, flavor-free diet you should try!”

“You don’t look well. Is there, er, something I should know?”

I look good in black. This is not a crime! And for some inexplicable reason, I prefer hearing comments like “Nice dress!” “Are you going out some where?” and “Wow, elegant.” Which are the comments I get when I wear black, dark greys, and dark blues. The black clothing looks great with expensive jewelry, and also great with casual denim jeans. So I’m set, wherever I’m going.

And, no, I don’t dress like an Italian grandmother. In the words of columnist Kathy Pollitt, the correct term for this look is “Hot Sicilian Widow.” So much nicer.

I just returned from Naples, Florida, where I took Zumba classes taught by Casta Melendez. Casta is a ballroom dancer from Venezuela, and I continue to think that her Zumba classes are the most fun you can have while working out. She had several new routines, and the usual exuberant classroom. If you like salsa, cumbia, tango, etc., these are the classes to take.

In January, I finally broke down and joined a fancy gym in Seattle so I could take Zumba from one of the city’s master teachers, Daniel Nery Dos Santos Filho. Daniel is a capoeira (Brazilian martial arts) instructor, and his class can get extremely athletic (although you can modify to any level of workout). His choices of music include Afro-pop and Latin beats, and the classes are fluid and highly entertaining. I burn about 600 calories in one of Daniel’s classes, and was surprised to see that I  burned only 400 at Casta’s session. Both Daniel and Casta teach classes with participants of all ages and ethnicities.

Cesar Molina

When I’m on the road, or can’t get to my Seattle class for some reason, I do Zumba using the You Tube videos put up by Cesar Molina, who teaches in Chile. It’s my dream to travel to Chile to study with Cesar for a week. His classes are highly dance-oriented, closer to Casta’s approach, and more youth-oriented, with some hip-hop routines as well as lots of easy-going bachata routines. I love an older video Cesar put up some years ago that uses Prince Royce’s version of “Stand By Me.” If you aren’t familiar with Zumba, this is a good routine to start with.

By the way, the hottest tune on the Zumba circuit at the moment is “Vacaciones” by Wisin (the link is to Cesar’s video; the actual music video is…unappealing). All three of my teachers are using “Vacaciones” — each with different choreography, which is scrambling my brain. I have to say, Daniel’s choreography is the best!

For a few years, the only bra I’ve found that looks good while being truly comfortable is Wacoal’s 85185 Bodysuede Underwire. But it’s still a lot of bra, and particularly warm in the summer months.

Attempting to find alternatives in my largish cup size, I’ve ordered bras by Fantasie, Glamorize, and a few other brands. A bit overconstucted? When I tried them on and checked in the mirror, I looked like I was waiting to take the stage as Brunhilde in The Ring Cycle.

I sent them back. Someday, I told myself, someday someone will make a lightweight, comfortable bra that fits me.

Well, now Bali has. The sub-brand is called “Lilyette.” Three styles of Lilyette bras arrived today and they’re all comfortable:

• 0434 – Enchantment Minimizer aka Enchantment Lace Minimizer (which isn’t all that minimizing, but it looks fine and feels featherweight)
• 0456 – Side Support Minimizer aka Embellished Keyhole Minimizer (which has very attractive use of lace and fabric)
• 0904 – Dreamwire Minimizer aka Plunge into Comfort Keyhole Minimizer (a t-shirt bra in a choice of jacquard or smooth satin fabric)

All three bras make use of fabrics that are slightly stretchy (similar to the Wacoal 85185) so you don’t feel “sewn in.” The back closure has three hooks to a column (not quite as secure as the Wacoal’s four, but the back doesn’t ride up).

This page on the Bali (Hanes) site describes “the Lily fit:”

• Open neckline, accommodates lower and wider necklines on clothes
• Less projection, but cups are shaped rather than flattening
• Natural support, with wider-set straps and an “open underwire”

There are 14 Lilyette bras, 10 of which are available in my cup size. As you might note in the list of styles above, the company doesn’t seem to have settled on names for the bras — website names did not agree with the names on the tags. However, the model numbers I listed are reliable.

Those of you who are tired of hearing me bitch about (yet another) crappy Zumba class  may be relieved to learn that I’ve finally found a great online program.

It’s on YouTube. The teacher, Cesar Molina, is everything that Casta Melendez and Gustavo Gutierrez-Bernal have inspired me to seek out.

Like Casta and Gustavo, Cesar has a deep, strong, background in dance. He moves with grace, playfulness and joy. Yes, it’s exercise — but that’s not the point of Zumba. At least it shouldn’t be.

I’ve so had it with the faux-Zumba instructors exhorting me to grind the cartilage out of my knees with hip-hop moves. And I’ve really had it with aerobics instructors who get Zumba certification and then proceed to bore me to death with their peppy grins, corny exhortations, bouncy 1980s dance moves, and playlists of inane pop hits. And I am exasperated with the local gyms who hire these people.

If you’ve been burned by bad Zumba, take a restorative look at Cesar’s videos. At least half of the songs he uses are romantic bachata or lighter Latin — for instance, Plakito. As you dance, you work on balance, strength, muscle control and flexibility. It’s not about flailing frantically in an effort to burn calories.

I wish I could travel to Chile to study with Cesar, but for the moment I’m perfectly happy to work out to his YouTube videos.

Was it really 10 years ago that I found myself in a power yoga class?

The teacher, Susan Powter, called it Trailer Park Yoga because it didn’t require a special studio or any equipment (except a mat).

Susan has strong ideas about fitness, and she repeated them, as mantras of a sort, throughout the classes.

I’m embarking on a challenging, interesting, but highly fragmented and demanding 2016. It’s going to demand that I’m fit. So I’m revisiting Susan’s worldview. (Your mileage may vary, but this approach worked for me in 2006, and I think it will work again.):

• We won’t change the world or get much accomplished if we feel weak and sick.
• We won’t be healthy and strong unless we get fit.
• Fitness is a state of having lean muscle instead of fat on our bodies.
• The best way to lose fat is to build lean muscles that burn fat efficiently.
• Low-calorie diets, independent of exercise, are futile because our bodies compensate by lowering our metabolisms (burning less food) when we eat less.
• The best path to fitness is to exercise vigorously 5 or more hours a week. It helps if we eat a diet that emphasizes whole grains, fruits and vegetables (but it doesn’t have to exclude meat).
• Breathe. Most people don’t get enough oxygen to their muscles.

I remember thinking at the time that this sort of approach to fitness (requiring 5 hours of serious exercise a week) wasn’t something the American public was going to latch onto. But now, perhaps, with our FitBits and Apple Watches keeping us honest about how long, and how hard, we work out…