Mrs. Franzos: Winter Whites

Thursday, February 5, 2015

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

I was born and largely raised in California. I didn't see my first snow until I was five years old and vacationing in Lake Tahoe. It was magical and beautiful, until it wasn't. A boy threw an icy snow ball at my face and it hurt. I cried. Snow wasn't anything like the cartoons, especially when I tried to make my own return-fire snowball. It numbed my little fingers and my aim sucked. I whiffed it. Big time. The stupid boy laughed at my pathetic snowball, so I shuffled over to him in my two-tone nylon speed suit, took off my vinyl mittens, and punched him in the nose. This time, my aim was true. His nose bled and I was put in a time out. How was I supposed to know that icy snowballs were permissible, but fisticuffs were not? As far as I was concerned, Lake Tahoe could keep their stupid snow.

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

Flash forward 29 years and I don't live in California anymore. I live in Pittsburgh and get four seasons, one of which is winter. Snow is still magical and beautiful, until it isn't. The first snow fall of every year, I get all squishy and obnoxious about looking at the individual snow flakes. "Aren't they so beautiful?" "Each one is unique!" I have about a 24 hour, honeymoon period with snow every year. Then, the next morning, when I'm up at 4:45am, shoveling the driveway and scraping the beautiful and unique devils off my car so I can get to the gym, I'm soooooooooo over it.

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

Snow, you wretched pain in my neck. GO AWAY. Or at least have the decency to fall hard enough so that I can get an adult snow day. DEAR GOD. I hold out hope every year for the possibility of an ADULT SNOW DAY. It might be what actually gets me through to spring. Help me adult snow day, you're my only hope!

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

In the meantime, I'm trying to make winter time dressing a little more fun. A little less rutty. A lot more epic. Are delusions of grandeur a symptom of cabin fever? I went to the planet of Hoth for inspiration and I am of course, talking about the fictional planet from the epic space opera known as Star Wars. Hoth is a desolate world, covered with ice and snow and located in the Anoat Sector, a rarely traveled portion of the Outer Rim. The indigenous creatures are the tauntaun and the wampa and it's really, really cold there. The rebel alliance (you know, Luke, Han, Leia, etc) was re-established there in Echo Base in The Empire Strikes Back and I gotta say, I love the rebel alliance in their winter whites.

photo credit: Unknown

Mr. Franzos, Lando and I, (meet my dog! named after Lando Calrissian) got out for a little, winter walk at a neighborhood sculpture park. Instead of going complete white monochromatic like the rebel alliance, I mixed it up with black, because, that's what I have in my closet. I wore my favorite rabbit fur hat, a cream OASAP shearling jacket, an Ann Taylor Loft vest, a black Los Angeles t-shirt, cream Free People stretch pants, a Kelsi Dagger shoulder bag, Hunter wellington boots and my favorite vintage French sunglasses.