Style: Frump finds its flock

Rarely has someone's journey rolled around in my head like that of Jessica Parker, who writes "No Accounting for Taste" on Substack. Parker has embarked on a close examination of her style—her entire self-presentation— in two insightful essays.

The first, "Rebuilding a sense of style, Part I", describes her decades of pain and shame concerning her body and attendant self-esteem, and her decision to finally stop trying to conform to rigid, impossible standards. Her bête noire is her round tummy. She discovers the attitude called "Frump", guided by a 2017 essay by Emma Copley Eisenberg, "Notes on Frump: A Style for the Rest of Us", among others, and jumps in belly first.

To its adherents, "Frump" is no longer a derogative term; the Frump, they believe, is seen for her true self, not just her ability to conform to a an unattainable standard of beauty. Its followers range from all-in to women who Frump when they fancy. They cite five key behaviours:

What is new about Frump is not the knee socks, but the liberation. Parker says, "As middle age renders me less visible in the world, the feeling of adopting frump and claiming my belly is like a warm cabin in the woods, with my weird garden (mugwort and rue, anyone?) and seven cats, crochet blankets and quilts made from all the clothing from my past that could not longer be worn."

I waited eagerly for the next part: what was Jessica Parker actually going to wear, newly freed of the voices in her head that told her to diet yet again or find "flattering" clothes for her shape? Frump is in the eye of the wearer; items one woman deems frumpy can seem fashionable to another. (Emma Copley Eisenberg expands the aesthetic beyond clothing here, a hard-core Frump manifesto.)

Part II is subtitled "My first day of Frump School". The classic Frump closet holds undelineated-waist dresses, clogs, loose tops, cardies. Frumps say the point is not to reject femininity, but rather the social imperatives to be sexy, hot, attractive, pretty. Doin' fine in my smock, thank you. 

In the photos, Parker resembles my bank manager, teachers at the school across the street, and the  female techies who work in my 'hood (except they're in lot more black)—the choices are familiar; every woman I know owns at least a few gateway Frump pieces.

I often see young Frumps in thrift stores, and before I even knew the term (in the modern, positive sense), noticed this twentyish woman letting her Frump flag fly:

There are a lot more around than you might think, if you include the Frump-adjacent, such as the modest dressers, Intentional Aunties, Coastal Grandmas (Frumps with money), and as a friend who lived there says, "women from Vermont." 

Or maybe Minnesota? Gwen Walz, wife of Governor Tim Walz, US Presidential contender Kamala Harris' running mate, was praised in an article in The Cut by Valerie Monroe, when she made her first appearance related to the campaign in "a frumpy cardigan and shapeless above-the-knee shift". Monroe referred to Walz' look as "unmanipulated", "relaxed, easy" and  "unequivocally like the real thing": a Frump home run.

As I looked at various posts of women in Frump attire, I did not feel drawn to the clothes, preferring a dollop more detail and ornamentation than Frump. This shot of a woman on the street in NYC in May, is an example:

One can dress comfortably without denying chic, which rests on a base of sophistication. This is the manner of Miuccia Prada, who said, "I am happiest when I am dressed almost like a nun; it makes you feel so relaxed." But she favours fabulous vintage earrings (especially chandeliers), and cycles between loafers and heels, depending on the occasion.

Mrs. Prada

Mrs. Prada, age 75 and heir to the family's design  DNA, transmits a highly individual style that wafts realms above frump, but references similar elements of ease and defiance of edicts. 

I've noticed retirement is a frump-positive stage of life, as is the student period. Frump worn by an elder is a risky bet, because styles like pinafore dresses or overalls on mature women are often interpreted as sartorial desuetude, but as frumps point out, they don't dress for others.

Will "frump" flip to a positive descriptor? Reclaiming other negative terms used to denigrate women (e.g., slut, bitch) never fully took hold. There will still be clothes that I try on and judge dull, dispiriting or shapeless. My dismissive word for them: "frumpy", still.

Things I like about Frump: the acceptance of all body sizes and shapes; the non-conformity to heavily-gendered and often misogynistic feminine standards for attractiveness; the comfort and ease of movement. Things I don't like: some Frumps do not acknowledge that at times one may freely choose to amplify sexual desirability.... heeeey, there!—through attire. We should include that possibility—the signals of human plumage—too. 

 

I predict that Jessica Parker will be a discriminating Frump; she enjoys her clothes, many of which are vintage and secondhand. She has now decisively recalibrated her purpose and shifted her criteria. She says, "Feeling comfortable and confident isn’t trivial or selfish, it can be a foundation on which all kinds of work and joy and growth and participation in the world is built."

I would love to hear from you. Do you have a Frump side, or are you a confirmed Frump? Perhaps you would run in your Louboutins from even hint of that look?