Confession: once upon a time I wore a dickie.
Not ironically, not alone as a sexy costume, and not out of losing a bet.
(For the young of heart, mind, and body who may not know, a dickie is just the collar of a button-up shirt or turtleneck and a few inches of the surrounding fabric, designed to go under a sweater of something else to give the illusion of another layer without wearing the full shirt or turtleneck.)
It was the holiday season of 1995 and I was working the nightmarish shopping rush at Structure (today people may know it as Express Men, or just Express, if either is even still in existence). From my mall-eyed inexperience at the time, it felt like a dream job, but even I got bogged down in the insanity of the holidays, and working retail in December is not for the faint of heart. Dealing with the mad rush of customers is one thing, trying to keep the floor stocked and filled with merchandise was another – and both had to be done in quick and voluminous fashion. This could be sweaty and uncomfortable work.
We were supposed to wear Structure sweaters, which were hot enough on their own, but I had to be extra-festive, wanting to add the look of a red turtleneck to accent whatever red was in my sweater. The solution, without having to sweat like Whitney Houston, was to be found in the dickie. Where I managed to locate a dickie at that time evades memory – was it Jordan Marsh? Filene’s Basement? Woolworth’s? All these places date me, as if the dickie didn’t already, and all were in Downtown Crossing in Boston at the time. Whatever wayward place had it, I fell for the antiquated style idea and got my hands on not one but two (one red as mentioned, and one in a gold lamé for even extra-extra-festivity).
Look, this was a dark time. I was only just learning the basics of fashion, a little of what worked for me, and a lot of what didn’t. Like clip-on ties and costume jewelry, it was a novice’s foray into something that never should have existed in the first place.
I wore it only once, at the store, because I felt like a fraud. And I was paranoid that someone would notice and point out that I was wearing a dickie. Couldn’t get one in my mouth but had one around my neck – the irony and shame of that was enough. (The one in gold never saw the light of day, and I think that was for the best. Much to my eternal disappointment, gold lamé didn’t suit me.)
PS – It wasn’t until this year, 2023, that I finally noticed that Eddie was wearing a dickie in ‘Christmas Vacation’. I had been too obsessed with the eggnog glasses in that scene to notice, but upon seeing that, I knew I had to come clean.
Wow – dickies and coming clean. It really is almost Christmas.
