Much to my surprise and amusement, have discovered the costume police. Here in Panama, the ladies who sew costumes, iron skirts and thread hair ornaments have a strict operational code. No deviations allowed.
Where I am from somethings about our national dress are rigid - other rules are there to be broken, to allow some individual expression. This week, I discovered the boundaries up here in the hills and they were not at all what I expected.
First requests seemed fairly harmless. We add colored cummerbunds over kilts, helps a lot - covers a multitude of problems. My newly made to measure beautiful white frilly blouse they wear here over the big skirts made me look like a sausage. It was not fitted at the waist and in my opinion ended at a rather unflattering length on the upper hip.
The suggestion to remedy this with a matching ribbon round the waist was met with a surprisingly forceful negative from not one but two local seamstresses. Did manage to get them to shorten the blouse by about 3-4 inches so it sits at the waist and we were allowed to add a few darts so it goes in and out a bit. Much better.
Second up, the hair thingies. I thought it would be nice to have a mixture of white and pale blue to match my skirt. Oh nooooooo, white or multi colored - those are the choices. The ladies who string the pearls are very sure about this. No one will slip through that net either.
So tomorrow the parades start with Independence Day from Columbia; Sunday Flag day. Both are parade days. We think Sunday is the big day but being the troopers we are, we are planning on supporting both. Here we go......the start of many many days marching, hopefully not in the rain.
Where I am from somethings about our national dress are rigid - other rules are there to be broken, to allow some individual expression. This week, I discovered the boundaries up here in the hills and they were not at all what I expected.
First requests seemed fairly harmless. We add colored cummerbunds over kilts, helps a lot - covers a multitude of problems. My newly made to measure beautiful white frilly blouse they wear here over the big skirts made me look like a sausage. It was not fitted at the waist and in my opinion ended at a rather unflattering length on the upper hip.
The suggestion to remedy this with a matching ribbon round the waist was met with a surprisingly forceful negative from not one but two local seamstresses. Did manage to get them to shorten the blouse by about 3-4 inches so it sits at the waist and we were allowed to add a few darts so it goes in and out a bit. Much better.
Second up, the hair thingies. I thought it would be nice to have a mixture of white and pale blue to match my skirt. Oh nooooooo, white or multi colored - those are the choices. The ladies who string the pearls are very sure about this. No one will slip through that net either.
So tomorrow the parades start with Independence Day from Columbia; Sunday Flag day. Both are parade days. We think Sunday is the big day but being the troopers we are, we are planning on supporting both. Here we go......the start of many many days marching, hopefully not in the rain.
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