Hashtag contemporary

Eva rolled on her fishnet tights. She liked to wear them – provocative, exposing and yet at the same time like a hurricane-wire fence: a barrier. To keep the animals out or to restrain the animal within? Ambiguous.

Then her little black dress. It had never made it onto an album but in 1998 the sublime Pet Shop Boys had released a demo. You can listen on YouTube:

Dressed to impress
Wearing a little black dress.
You’re such a princess
Wearing a little black dress.
So chic, such finesse
Wearing a little black dress.
You’re naked unless
You’re wearing a little black dress.
And flushed with success
Wearing a little black dress.

Eva slipped on her black suede boots. They reached above the knee, just a strip of fishnet exposed between their top and the bottom of the L.B.D.

Then a thick, blue-grey fisherman’s jersey, a red knitted beanie, big sunglasses.

Then her famous coat – one sleeve on, the other not – half the coat hanging down her back. It was long and looked as if made of caribou pelt, was shabby as if Fridtjof Nansen had actually worn this very coat on the Fram, or Roald Amundsen had taken it to the South Pole.

Eva picked up her iPhone with the pink rose case, her elegant fingers with just the right number of fine antique rings, and headed for the tall mirror in the hall.

How ever had she lived before Instagram?



Barnaby McBryde