Invert

A blog I follow (but the advice on which I seem incapable of following), Put This On, recently posted about an entry in yet another cool blog, Nerd Boyfriend, which features cool pictures of the famous and not-so-famous wearing interesting clothes, and then points viewers to sites where they might obtain similar objects as those in the pictures.

The Nerd Boyfriend post featured a picture of Truman Capote skating at Rockefeller Center and taken by photographers at Life. What caught my eye was that Mr. Capote was wearing what appears to be a Fair Isle sweater – inside out. I love the contrast between the free spirit on the ice and the rather drab and robot-like people observing from the edge of the rink.

       

If anyone could have carried this look off, it would have been him. According to the information at the Life website, this picture was taken in 1959. He cuts quite a dashing figure, very different from the In Cold Blood period, or from his appearances on afternoon talk shows in the 1970s, which is what I remember him from. In these pictures, he hasn’t yet donned the cravats and floppy fedoras of his later years.

Do yourself a favor and read Capote’s The Grass Harp if you haven’t already done so. Or even if you have. There’s something to be said for looking at life unconventionally.