Roadside Attractions
Aside from the denim they’re made from, what’s fashion-forward about overalls? Not much. Which is why their appearance in two movies opening today make them food for thought.
It’s easy to characterize overalls as Neptunian – so roomy that you can’t tell where they end or begin. Basically, donning overalls is like swimming in a pool – Neptune rules Pisces, fish and bodies of water – with no edges or boundaries.
But overalls are surprisingly at the other end of the spectrum. They’re psychologically confining.
In In a World… Lake Bell’s character, Carol, is a voice-over artist whose talent is ignored by her sexist father, Sam, a legend in the voice-over voice-of-God tradition. She’s got a real challenge. She must define (Saturn) her voice (Mercury) when Dad is at the top of the field to which she aspires but has no interest in supporting a voice-of-the-Goddess alternative. As a result, Carol oozes Saturnine traits. She’s a bit low on self-esteem and feels emotionally deprived. She has to deal with the roadblocks in the way of rising to the top – and Saturn-types like to be the CEOs of the zodiac.
And, then, of course, there are overtones of the mythic Saturn, whom the Greeks called Cronos. Cronos castrated his own father Ouranos. Later he was so intent on not letting his kids overthrow him that he ate them all, except for Zeus. Nice. It’s a safe bet Carol is at least thinking the same thing about Daddy. Meanwhile, those capacious overalls metaphorically help conceal her skill set and the sexuality which her industry refuses to acknowledge.
Magnolia Pictures
In Prince Avalanche, Alvin (Paul Rudd) is a organized, detail-oriented guy who loves his solitude – all Saturnine traits – and, above all, believes in the ritual of work. As it turns out, Alvin paints lane-divider lines on roads, and overalls are his uniform. But they also represent Alvin’s rigor and self-imposed rules, to the exclusion of joy.
Donning overalls may seem easy, but there’s a hardness about them.
You don’t want overalls to cover “over all.” You want the best parts of you, the wearer, not to get lost in fabric. You want and need to be defined.
Astrology Fashion Rating:♄(Saturn)
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