Frayed Ends

I do not know how to do these tights justice. I have kept them much longer than I meant to, or should have. They are not mine, and I am but an intermediary in their transportation. But I really do not want to let them go. I feel as if they hold a secret--a small but crucial piece of knowledge that I am dying to know.

They are faded. The black background has turned slightly grey-ish, and the once-brilliant polka-dots are faded to more subdued pastel-like tones. Green-yellows and purple-pinks of varying hues, four shades in total. They splatter the black lycra liberally in an almost-pattern, regularly but not quite in sync. They are made of a lycra-spandex sort of material, which is lined with white inside from the elastic that gives this fabric its supple stretch. They are spandex tights well-worn, with a zig-zag stitching at the waistline and ankles, though one wonders if they reached the ankles or merely the calves. In either case, they would make a fine spectacle that I would describe as sexy-fun. Absurd and luscious.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The tights are quite well-worn. Along the left side of the front crotch area, a line of tiny broken elastic pieces poke out in points and loops. Signs of a fabric stretched from too many wearings. These little white worm-like pieces dance and intertwine around the crotch, and down the legs. A few peek out along the buttocks seam as well. The seat is quite well-worn too, with rips and signs of repair. Most peculiarly, a piece of knit woolen-like material is sewn along two parallel, offset rips. I wonder, was this a patch that did not hold? It now curls in on itself as such material is wont to do. These rips are on the left-hand side. The right upper buttock has another parallel rip. A puckered patch job is on the left side, below and outside of the parallel rips. Looking inside, I see that yes, this was repaired with a felt-like knit cloth, similar to the one that I speculated on earlier. One patch held, the other did not. The patch is sewn along the edges and in the middle, repairing the break in fabric. Higher up, another parallel rip is sewn up, repaired for now and perhaps forever since these tights are unlikely to feel the pull and stretch as they contour their fibers around a well-shaped derriere. I find short diagonal runs on the right lower buttock, surely on their way to becoming full-blown tears. A similar run snakes across the right knee. The diagonal hem has begun to come undone on the bottom left ankle, and a thread hangs loose.

There is a tag ripped in half inside the tights by the back waistline. SIZE MEDIUM (CARE OVER). Below that, CRAZY LEGS. The other side is nearly illegible. I can make out the second word of each of the two lines: WASH and DRY. I can only guess that the first two words are HAND and HANG, though I am only speculating based on the vague shape of letters, length of faded grey, and my own experience with lycra. The material pills in places, more on the right leg than the left.

These tights are well-worn, well-used, well-loved. Rip and repair, rip and repair, rip. Threads give less and more. Microrips and runs. They are mundane and extraordinary, extraordinary in their care and the way they now shamelessly flaunt their fibers. They are made to be unmade, worn into the ground. And even then still remain an object of wonder.

A safety pin attaches a small note to the back of the left leg. The date, Decemer 8. 2010, is scrawled along the side. The note is handwritten in neat, yet individualized, script.

Alice B.

Toeclips

1990-

2010 costume.

Jacquie

Phelan's

unique

sartorial

style

draws on

commedia

dell' arte,

harlequien,

&

coyote trickster ->

(now I flip over the tag.)

stories.

She has

changed

shape

to elude

capture

her

entire life...

--Jacquie

is giving

USBHOF

these tights

Jacquie Phelan gave me these tights to give to the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. They are special and deserve to be there. But they also deserve to be touched, even though this will wear them down faster. They deserve appreciation and close analysis. People should wonder and know about the eclectic inspirations of this style. What is commedia dell'arte, the harlequin, and the coyote trickster? Do people know that the theaters of commedia dell'arte were among the first to employ female actresses to play women's roles? Do people understand their improvisational style, and that this venue set the stage for what would become comedy? Do they know of the harlequin character that frequented this stage, who would perform acrobatic feats in brightly-colored clothing while attempting to win over lust's desire? Or do they know the coyote trickster character of Native American lore? Do they know this figure's shape-changing ways, or the idolization of the coyote trickster by sci-tech feminist, Donna Haraway--my own intellectual hero?

And do people know what all this has to do with bicycles?

This is why I love bodies and objects, particularly in their intimate interactions. They wrap up so much in tight little balls of fabric, metal, and flesh. They fray, break, and bleed. They can be repaired or thrown aside, displayed to disintegrate, or preserved to be forgotten. They are remade, reinvented, repurposed, and refashioned. All this doing of bodies and objects makes them jam-packed with meaning and connections to the wider world. So that bicycling is never just about bicycling. And tights are never just threads and fabric. I'm going to stop short of saying everything I think these tights are about, and what their importance to bicycling is. But I will say that they have everything to do with bicycling precisely because they reach beyond riding into the world of myths, imagining, materials, and histories that constantly remake what and who we are today.