The 55 Frock Walk
Friday’s Fifty Five Frock Walk: September 25th, 2009
8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
55 dresses
22 miles
1 dress/ lap (.4 miles)
http://elsewhereelsewhere.org/projects/show/55-frock-walk/
At Elsewhere, I spent time amongst its vast and wonderful collection of things. The wardrobe was immense, the variety of garments, fabrics, and decades that these clothes once belonged to somewhat overwhelmed me at first. I really wanted to see how many of these dresses fit me. So one day I tried on as many as possible, selecting ones that I thought were approximately my size. I ended up with 55 dresses that fit me somewhat perfect. I wanted to get these old garments out in the open again, out from the jam packed and stifling darkness of the wardrobe and back into the light of every day life. I decided to take them all for a walk.
I changed into a different dress from the collection for each lap.
I knew that it would take me all day. This is exactly what I wanted for two reasons:
1. I would begin my frock walk before the shops opened and finish walking after the shops closed: The shop owners and construction workers on the street would serve as a consistent audience during the performance. They would be able to notice what was going on more so versus someone just walking through the area that day.
2. My loop intersected the main railway system for freight trains traveling through Greensboro. I was taking this positive interruption into account and hoped I would be stopped by trains as much as possible. This would give me the opportunity to be noticed by cars that had been stopped as well.
A train crossing is so exciting because a train is one of the only things in life that forces you to stop and there is no way around it. It is a moving wall. You must wait until it passes you. Unlike cars or buses, you may make your way around them, but you can never beat a train.
The night before the Frock Walk I took the white heels that I bought from a vintage store down the street and tried to vamp them up a bit. Make them able to withstand the miles. My hope was that I could last for as many of those 22 miles in the same heels. This was a lofty goal. I took some of my athletic socks and cut them to fit inside the bottom of each heel. Then, using thick fabric, I sewed patches onto places on the socks where I knew there would be problems later. I tried taking some comfort precautions. I didn’t account too much for the sides for blisters, and that’s where the pain started. Eventually I had to put band-aids on, and after those band-aids kept on falling on en-route, I decided to medical tape the band-aids around my foot so they wouldn’t go anywhere.
I made it 20 laps with those heels. After the 15th lap I wore white flats that I brought with me to NC. Much more comfortable of course, but not as effective sound-wise. I mean, there’s nothing like the sound of heels coming down a side walk. That was at 3:30. I’m absolutely sure the heels were slowing me down. At 3:30 I was only at lap 25. This was no good. 25 laps in 7 hours, at this rate I wouldn’t be done walking until 10:30. Ditched the heels.
I was stopped at the train crossing only four times during the day. There was a significant lull in trains mid day, but overall I missed more trains than I caught, which was disappointing, but the timing of the re-adjusting my footwear and changing from dress to dress took longer than I had expected.
Most of the shop owners around took notice of what I was doing. There are a few guys doing construction on the pottery studio store front most of the day, and one of the men had a handful of comments to give as I passed in different dresses. He had his favorites for sure. Especially the strapless flowy little white and lavender formal type dress. He made a sound from atop his ladder and blurted out, “girl you look good enough to get
MARried right now!” Those workmen witnessed the progression of dresses all day long, and I in turn got to see their progress on the building. At 3:30 or so, two women came out of the fitness studio on the street to their car, I guess it was the last class of the day, and just as I passed one of the women asked me what I was doing, saying that they had been watching me come by in different dresses all day. At about 5:00, there was a cute little old lady on the street near one of the garbage cans. She said to me, “ I admire you’re spirit…” and I thanked her, and said, “ Where are you, are you in one of the shops?” She told me yes, she and her co-worker were inside the used office furniture store and they had been watching me pass by all day long. After we met, I waved to them as I passed on a few laps before they closed down.
My hope was that someone would notice something different throughout the day. Not just a store owner, who would obviously witness much of the performance, but perhaps someone driving/ walking to work around 9 in the morning, only to come home that same day seeing me again, in several different dresses. There are several abnormalities to this situation in general:
1. I am wearing a dress. A nice dress. Possibly a very outdated dress.
2. I am not holding a bag. Since I am walking in a dress but do not have some sort of purse/handbag, where could I be going without any or my things?
3. Who is that man following with the camera? What is happening? Why is this being recorded? These are questions no doubt anyone paying attention would have had once seeing Blanket following my walk with a small video camera shaped like an I-Phone. We all get curious when something is being documented.
Thanks to everyone from Elsewhere who fed me and gave me water, I made it through the day. I had a number counter to keep track of laps. Anthony set up a little fancy stand with a water jug/ water glass, even with lemon! And a sign that informed Elsewhere guests about the project. I was also left delicious SNACKS on plates for lunch and dinner, this was amazing, and I took a few bites every lap.
My 55th lap, a handful of wonderful people from inside Elsewhere joined me on my final round. This was great indeed, and I was thankful for their company. At about lap 49, I was really using me arms to propel myself down the street. I understand why old ladies use a lot of arm when they are mall speed walking.
Below are the first 12 FROCKS of the WALK:
