Satin Blouses and Nights Out
When you’re out in a satin shirt with lip gloss and a cheap purse, it is a dang honor. You might not realize it at the time, but it’ll be 11 o’clock one night, and you’ll think of 3 am body odor. Then, you’ll know.
Satin blouses (or silk ones, but I don’t know those as well) feel like wearing a tablecloth in a hot way. It’s one of the few decades-spanning traditions of a woman dressing up that rarely looks dated. A satin button-up knotted at the waist feels both dignified and like you should be bringing people vodka sodas. In that way, the satin/poly blouse might speak to the human experience.
They’re also perfect for when you don’t have much money but need to look lustrous — maybe it’s at a family holiday meal or simply at a bar. They are a jaunty piano solo of a shirt, and the one I wear the most is from Kathie Lee’s old Wal-Mart line. The liquid-gold button-up was thrifted and gifted to me by my Very Famous friend Annie, and it has been the shirt I turn to when I need to look like a bottle of champagne.
Another Very Famous friend, Rachel, tweeted last week: “Most of my wardrobe is highly flammable,” and few things would go up quicker than a poly/satin (let’s be real..poly) blend. They’re very of the moment in that way! Spilled drinks also roll right off, and satin blouses are often the color of those drinks anyhow — burgundy and mimosa and silver.
While googling “satin shirts 90s” I came across the satin fetish community. YouTube user sonic45325 uploaded a series of videos about a year ago of women on TV wearing satin blouses. There’s a British TV presenter named Davina McCall, who is wearing a black silk shirt on the set of a short-lived game show called “God’s Gift”, and actress Anna Maria Horsford wearing a gold blouse in 2001’s “How High” starring Redman and Method Man. The caption and comments sections of each video echo a singularly specific, vaguely unsettling homage to satin’s smooth fluidity. The user pleads in one video caption to “bring back women, not controled [sic] by their white liberal acountant [sic], mountain climbing sexless boyfriends, omg” hahaha!
OK, well, there’s no good place to end this lil’ piece on satin blouses, except to say that below are some good ones for the days ahead calling for fluidity and dreams of slippery nights.
Satin Blouses For You to Think About + 2 Lip Glosses Too!
Vintage Lilac Blouse from Vintage Fever Store / $18
Robbie Bee Iridescent Pink Blouse from Universoul Vintage / $24.50
Equestrian Print Blouse from Golden Crane Vintage / $37.50
Kathie Lee Champagne Satin Blouse from Fly Girl Thrift / $25
Y2K Chic Teal Satin Blouse from Funk Yeah Thrift / $23.40
Nasty Gal Latin Metallic Blouse from Caroline Diane / $17.25
Joanna Golden Yellow Satin Blouse from Iliana Flores / $18.75
Lip Glosses!
Icy Girl from Pretty Babes Cosmetics / $14.99
Shooting Star Glitter Lip Gloss from Beauty Bar Baby / $10.00
