Cool linen

I think the long hot summer has finally got to me and I have gone 'troppo'. Either that or I have been watching too many Merchant & Ivory movies in which gorgeous young things float through the English summer looking cool and elegant dressed in beautiful linen clothes. In the background can be heard the thwack of a tennis ball being hit by a wooden racket and then all the linen wearers gather under large green trees on green lawns and sit in wicker chairs drinking tea or Pimms. All the while their linens stay immaculate under the warmth of the sun and there is never a wrinkle or a drop of perspiration to be seen. Agh, think I, that's the way to stay cool in the hot summer - wear linen in pale colours.



All the while there is a little voice in my head reminding me that someone from the wardrobe department is close on their heels ready to steam out any annoying wrinkle which has the audacity to appear and someone from makeup is ready to mop their brow. Quite apart from the fact that the English summer is probably 20 degrees cooler than the Australian summer. However, the thought once planted could not be ignored (although the voice in my head was) and I bought some pale cool linens and made myself a pair of wide leg pants and a white shirt in which I could lounge and feel cool. The fact that I never 'lounge' in or on anything, let alone linen, did not matter - I was going to be cool in the summer heat.



At the moment my, as yet, unworn linens look pristine and I liked the white shirt so much I have now bought some black linen to make another one (the idea being that black won't show the creases so much).



So if one day you see a poor old thing wearing clothes which look as if they have been pulled from the bottom of the ironing basket where they have been for many months and she is waving her arms in the air with an imaginery tennis racket, muttering thwack, thwack, spare a thought for her - it will probably be me.