Tadashi Who?

Man of the Hour-Glass Mannequin (present company excepted) NYTimes photo by Jonathan Browning

Fashion plate is not a dish stacked in my china cabinet or clothes closet, for that matter. I’m not exactly the anti-fashion either. Let’s just say the leaves settled at the bottom of my post-shopping cup of tea spell out off the rack, not runway. Clearance rack, whenever possible.

I like the quality found in the limited and generic clothing stock of a warehouse store like Costco: Docker slacks, diggers, and shorts. Lee jeans. One-hundred per cent cotton tops. Better yet, tunics. Neutral toned. Clothes usually don’t add measurably nor take away from whatever impression I make.

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Bride and MOTB (in her Tashi Shoji gown).

Yet, based on an article featured in the New York Times a few days ago – Fashion Section  even -- the  gown I wore to my daughter’s wedding (six months ago) bore the label of a trending designer. A guy at the top of his game who has dressed Oscars winners both before and after Em’s wedding. Hefty winners, referring to these ladies' talent and hip sizes..

Go figure.  Figure like in the pear-shaped dimensions I’ve sported since adolescence. More rump than rack, that’s for sure. Like the generic-ware at Costco: neither eye-catching nor eyesore. Presentable, like my mother use to say. Not necesssarily pretty.

Yet,  Tadashi Shoji, the designer of my dress - bought unused off  eBay -- is the same Tadashi Shoji who has become  The Man  of the Hourglass Mannequin. He has a knack for creating eveningware that smooths out lumps and bumps that shape most women to  an “illusion of tall and thin.” His words.

I wonder if it's too earlier to start trending a nomination for Time magazine’s  Person of the Year.