The Sweater

I was out mailing the latest armload of prints and picking up groceries this afternoon, and being in a good mood, I decided to swing my favorite little local clothing boutique and check out their sales rack. (Full price there is dire, but the markdowns are often fabulous, and the proprietor knows who I am and can usually be relied on for a chat.)

And I found this sweater.

It is a lovely sweater. It looks good on me. It was on sale. And I’m vaguely wondering if I’ll have the nerve to actually wear it in public.

See, it’s one of those that combines the turtleneck with the v-neck, leaving a framed diamond of bare skin from collarbone to cleavage.

Ironically, it’s not all that low cut. I have a dozen shirts that show more décolletage, which I wear regularly and without a second thought. (Hey, the area between the breasts is known anatomically as the intermammary sulcus or intermammary cleft*. I didn’t know that! Thank you, wikipedia!) The thing is that by having fabric as a framing element on all sides, the intermammary sulcus in question is suddenly a Lot More Obvious. It’s like wearing a sign saying HELLO WORLD, I HAVE BOOBS!

I’m a D-cup already, so believe me, that was never in question. (Unless I stand next to Carlota, of course.)

Funny, I worked at a frame shop for months and told customers all the time how framing really made something pop. I just never considered that it might work with clothing too.

Oh, well. I’ll just wear it to the grocery store a few times until I get used to it, and play who-makes-eye-contact-above-the-collarbone bingo while I shop.

*My stepmother would occasionally carry a rat in her intermammary cleft when she happened to have a rat on her and needed her hands free. (This happened rather more frequently than you’d think.) My stepmother is cool. The rats never complained either.

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