Pippa's dress; The Power of Attire; Manhattan Morning

A day or so ago, The New York Times felt compelled to publically agonize -- on page 2 of the printed edition -- over whether it should have covered the wedding of Pippa Middleton to James Mathews, which it described as "a private family event" as opposed to something of public significance.

Well, yes, the ceremony itself and ensuing festivities were for guests only, but the event wasn't entirely private. The new Mrs. Matthews was said by the paper to have "posed happily for waiting photographers" after the ceremony in her very charming, lace-bodiced wedding gown by British designer Giles Deacon.





Prior to the wedding, the paper said it had attempted to greatly limit its coverage of the nuptials to then Miss Middleton's "relationship with the media, rather than on her wardrobe choices."

But perhaps the NYT should have done the reverse and in the end, perhaps it did.

Clothes matter.

In the case of a Royal Wedding (Ms Middleton's sister's, for instance) or a presidential inauguration, what participants wear "is a powerful tool, promoting a particular message," The Times pontificated. "Their attire reflects a strategic choice about the core personal values they hope to communicate."

And that goes for ONLY participants at events The Times deems to be "important?"  Not for the rest of us?

I don 't think so.

To a larger extent than many wish to admit (it's cool to denigrate the world of high fashion while at the same time attempting to pretend that all the copy-cat stuff most people wear isn't "fashion"), we are what we wear. We are all contemplating core personal values every time we try to decide what should or should be in our closets and drawers. And whether we like to admit it or not, we all make judgements of people on the basis of what they are wearing. Often, it is all-important first-impressions that are at stake.

An event is announced or an invitation extended. One of everyone's first questions: "what should I wear?"

Why go on about this?

It all has to do with a certain strain of reader reaction to my novella "Manhattan Morning."  In it my protagonist, Dan, takes a walk through mid-town Manhattan and on his way, spends a lot of time noticing what people -- particularly women -- are wearing.  He also eyes any number of shop windows and contemplates the latest "looks" and what they might be trying to say. That's in large part because his former wife was in the fashion industry.

Some readers have asked me why he would do such a thing, or why would I want to write about such matters? The implication is that the topic is trivial -- or worse.

Not so.

In the end, The Times wound up covering little but the clothes when it came to the Middleton-Matthews wedding. The paper, we are told, "settled on a series of photographs rather than a news article for our coverage" and what did readers then mainly contemplate?  What people were wearing.

And the verdict on Pippa's dress? As Molly Bloom would put it: "yes." A triumph for both Ms Middleton/Mathews and Mr. Deacon.