Strip down. Start over. Forget what you know.
The Fool is the first card in every Tarot deck, the empty open starting point. The beginning of the journey.
The Fool in Ann’s Fashion Tarot is a well-coiffed woman who drops her nightgown to the floor in an empty bedroom in front of the mirror, and says, well, here I am.
I used to work in the fundraising office of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Those people knew how to dress. One of my coworkers had extraordinarily shiny pale hair, the kind that said, yeah, yes, I was raised in a home where conditioner was always available. She topped that off with little wire glasses and craft-show earrings. You know what I mean. A lot of wood and copper. Every day she wore a silk blouse or a superclassy thin-weave sweater. Every day she was braless. She looked the way it looks to bridge two worlds, the wealthy and the artsy, the polished and the awkward. She did that without saying a word, just by standing there. She looked a way that said, yes, your hands might get sweaty giving this gift, but they’ll stay clean. Sort of. Give it up, my man.
She did very well for the Orchestra.
Right after we started to be work-friends, she told me that the first thing she did every morning at home was walk up to her full-length mirror and pull off her nightgown and throw it on the floor. Then she took a good look. Then, I guess, she could get on with the silk blouse and the crafty beads and the day.
In that same conversation she also told me we should meet only in the office and never go to lunch because she preferred to be a colleague and not a friend. That stung. I mean I really dug her look. But, what are you going to do. You do not argue with a person who gets dressed that way.
The Fool says go find yourself a mirror. This is how we begin.
The Fool is sponsored by Yoga With Kelly, who asks that you show up dressed but think naked.
Visit Yoga With Kelly on Facebook.
Tomorrow: The Magician.
ann rosenquist fee 