Friday, June 11, 2010

WHAT I SAW ON THE WAY...

At an out of town shopping centre I saw a very thin, very orange young girl pushing a stroller. She wore a pink velour tracksuit with something embroidered on the back in gold swirly letters: Queen of something, I can't remember. She had tied her hoodie in a tight knot at the front so as to expose her midriff.

Yesterday on the tube at about 11.30am I saw a young black man wearing a tuxedo and bow tie. I assumed this was some kind of work uniform until I noticed his black patent winklepickers and bright red socks, his drainpipe trousers cut just so to display them.

I stood behind an elderly lady on the escalator at Green Park who was wearing a long black high gloss PVC raincoat with leopard skin lining showing at the cuffs. Thinking about it, it must have been reversible: black on one side, leopard print on the other. She had lovely beigey, lilacy coloured hair and just tucked behind her ear wore a tiny sparkly lilac hair clip, the kind little girls wear.

An arab woman and her son were in Starbucks. The son wore cheesy western clothes and MBT trainers. The woman wore full niqab but in what looked like pale pink polyester. I watched him messily slurp down his coffee, then watched her lift her veil swiftly and turn to the wall each time she took a sip of hers.

I watched a middle aged man sitting on the train opposite me, wearing a purple T shirt and black trousers, take out a compact mirror and carefully apply bright red lipstick before arriving at London Bridge.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

oh gee whiz i originally thought you were writing about an episode of "little britain"...heheh
"queen of something, i don't remember"...i shall be laughing all day long over that one!
great post! keen observations!

(montréal doesn't really have that much of a sartorial rainbow--or maybe it has something to do with the fact that i use hang in 2 neighbourhoods...mile end or the plateau...)

Claire said...

I know, all I could think when writing this post is that people will think I've made it up or am exaggerating. Nope!

Camille said...

If Jane: I live in Montreal too, and it's all there! I thought the same thing until I started to venture out of those two neighbourhoods... What a discovery! I've had enough of that homogeneity, so I'm moving to St. Henri!

ephemerette said...

Love it. Just your average day in London!

Siru said...

Just looking at people can be so interesting!

juliet xxx

Alex said...

I know that these are all totally true characterisations! What a city we live in.

Anonymous said...

I love these observations, especially of the Arab woman turning to the wall every time she wanted a sip of coffee. New York is of course full of all of this, but at some point you stop noticing. I guess it's time to reopen my eyes!

Claire said...

Yeah, I think I noticed after being in India where everywhere we went everyone except us was Indian. We're so used to seeing all kinds of people from different cultures doing their own thing, hearing loads of different languages all around us - I'm glad I had that little window when I came back to notice and appreciate it - I think it's gone now...