Unlucky for some

This was going to be a post about how I’ve recently got into making historical clothing, but recent events have changed it into a post about niche superstitions.

So, the historical clothing. This is me in a dress modelled on a 17th-century kirtle, because I really like the look of them. I’m also wearing a historical shift, which is like a cross between a blouse and and underskirt, and which has received far more use over the last few months than you would believe. It is so comfortable, as well as being a warm base layer.

But the kirtle has only been worn twice: on Sunday, when a friend of mine had a terrible accident after church, and today, when I received word that my friend had died from the results of her accident, and that my brother-in-law is being made redundant.

I was already nervous about wearing the dress again today because I have a thing about some dresses being unlucky. There have been, I think, three dresses I have got rid of because bad things seemed to happen when I wore them, or bad things are connected to them. (I wore one of them to a couple’s wedding and they divorced soon afterwards – that kind of thing.)

Now I know that this doesn’t make sense, and a dress can’t actually cause bad events to happen (or even cause you to hear about them) but it’s hard to shake a superstition that seems to be based on empirical evidence. Some of you will know that I don’t celebrate my birthday, not because of hang-ups about aging, but because whenever I try to celebrate it, bad things happen. The last time I trepidatiously tried to do anything nice for my birthday, I ended up self-isolating in winter in a flat with broken central heating. After decades of that kind of thing, you take the hint.

I’m open to your thoughts on this, and I know some of you will think that the best thing to do is just keep wearing the dress/celebrating the birthday until I get over the confirmation bias, but given the results so far, it’s not an experiment I’m keen to continue. Which is a pity, because it’s a really nice dress.

Tags: dressmaking, superstitions