Kokopelli’s subtle influence
September 14th, 2005Do you know who Kokopelli is? If not, click the link and read up.
I don’t always think about symbolism. I mean, often I do, but not all the time. I wear what’s comfortable and I do what I want, most of the time, usually without thinking things all the way through.
So, back when I was at Falcon Ridge I bought a couple of dresses. One was this Guatamalan dress that I scored for $10, the other was a green Cinderella dress from Eagle Ray Traders with a nifty stars, moons and Kokopelli pattern on it.
Frankly, the Eagle Ray dress was the only one in my size in a color I could actually wear. (Being pale as a ghost leaves me limited in flattering color choices.)
You know, there’s no way I ever would have thought about it. Even if I were readily familiar (instead of passingly familiar) with the Kokopelli lore, I still would not have thought about it. I just liked the green dress.
I noticed that night at FRFF that I was getting an awful lot of attention. I attributed this to the fact that I was wearing a glowing necklace, blue glowstick hoop earrings and several glowstick bracelets. It would be more than accurate to say, I stood out (not that I don’t anyway, but usually less so in the dark). I didn’t really think anything of it. Wearing that much glowing neon in the dark at a folk festival is bound to garner attention. It’s not like they could even see the dress.
I wore this dress to work today. Now, usually, when I wear a cute outfit or an exceptionally flattering one, there are three people who will mention it. Every now and again a couple more will say something, but 90% of the time it’s women commenting on the outfits of other women. I guess it’s a female thing. Today, though, before noon, I had no less than six people, most of them men, tell me how pretty my dress was and how much they liked it. Even when guys compliment my outfits, I can’t think of very many times I’ve heard them say “I like that dress, it’s very pretty.” Usually, the sentiment is more along the lines of “Nice dress” or “You look good today”. Pretty tends not to be a word used very often by men when referring to the clothing of women.
First thing this morning we were discussing my dress. The guys were asking about Kokopelli and I skirted the answer, preferring to refresh my own memory before butchering the lore. The interesting part was how quickly the conversation descended into the gutter. This is not, in and of itself, unusual for smoke breaks, but the rapidity was a little surprising. The next smoke break went along a similar manner, only worse, since there is a collection of Kokopelli clustered around one boob and a single Kokopelli who happens to be right at the center seam on the top of the dress’ skirt portion (use your imagination!). And again, we descend rather rapidly into the gutter.
I made mention in a recent post “…and I think that maybe, you almost kissed me, too”. I was wearing this dress that night. Could it have been the power of Kokopelli working through the symbolism? I can’t discount that, but I’m not ready to believe in the power of Batik just yet - lol.
Another story with the dress. I wore it to an open mic. The one where I totally crapped out and was lied to by some well meaning people. There was this one fellow there who was pretty into me (though I was not really interested in him). He was incredibly sweet and flirty… and I was wearing the dress.
It almost seems like it calls to people… or maybe that it calls them to me. All I know is that I like this dress a lot. It’s a flattering color, a flattering cut and, DUDE, it has nice deep pockets. Kokopelli or not, magical powers or not, I am so totally going to keep wearing this dress.
Although, on some level, I may find myself leaning toward wearing it more often for certain people or in certain situations.
~FG };^>
