Adventure Garden

In my collection, I have a few pieces that I bought early and wore often. Adventure Garden is one of these; every other picture I have from my early 20s features a guest appearance. (There are two other pieces that I love(d) as much, which will of course get their own posts.)

I was so excited! And I didn't even know how long Adventure Garden would be by my side, or all the cities we'd go to together (Madrid, Berlin, Paris, Prague, Buenos Aires, probably some other places that I don't remember because I didn't get any photos of me and Adventure Garden doing our thing). I was mostly excited because it cost $12 (at SLOW, which was the most amazing place for a young vintage-hunter-in-training right around 2000).


I love the glam housewife-y feel of Adventure Garden; it made me think of vacuuming in pearls, an idea I find bizarrely appealing, though I don't a) wear pearls or b) vacuum. (It bothers the cat.)

So many things I love about Adventure Garden! Where do I begin? First of all, the print is amazing.

The flowers are just plopped down in a strangely gridlike no-man's-land of greenery. It's floral, but more dashing than sweet.

The cut is also perfect: fitted but not tight, it just skims the body, making it super-comfortable in the heat.

If you get cold, a cardigan is plenty to keep you warm.

Archive photo

And should a dj be dumb enough to take your request for "Pump It Up," you can dance in it.

Archive photo

And the neckline! Can we bring this neckline back?

Please?

But I have some very sad news about my beloved Adventure Garden: I haven't worn it in years. The problem is the back seam, the one running down from the zipper. It is sort of... disintegrating. I've sewn it up several times over the years, but unless my butt gets radically smaller (not likely), there just isn't enough fabric left to make a seam. I am considering just covering it up with a length of red or green grosgrain ribbon, but I'm not sure my sewing skills are advanced enough to do this properly. If you have any suggestions, please put them in the comments! Adventure Garden hates being stuck in a closet.

In the meantime, I'll be listening to the Muzak, thinking 'bout this and that...

All photos by Claire Loeb! Except for the ones that clearly aren't.