Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Sweaters-- Part 4: Wall Street's Sweater Girl and Ugly Christmas Sweaters

9.  For a short time in late 1968, Francine Gottfried was famous.  Dubbed "WALL STREET'S SWEATER GIRL," the 21-year-old bank data processing worker took the same route to work every day, and large crowds of men began gathering near the New York Stock Exchange to ogle her tight sweaters.

Before the furor subsided, 10,000 gawkers showed up one day.  "These people in Wall Street have the responsibility of handling millions of dollars and they act like they are out of their minds," said Gottfried, who moved on to work somewhere else.  Her treatment inspired feminists to stage an "Ogle-In" on June 9, 1970, leering at male passers-by and commenting loudly about their body parts.

10.  UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS used to be what made your grandmother special.  Now they are a thing, a meme, a point of (ironic) hipster pride-- and big business.  There are a 21-event 5K charity race series and numerous pub crawls, and the so-called National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day is the second Friday of September.

People hold ugly-sweater-themed parties, and if you can't figure out how to do it by yourself, there's a book.  Major retailers claim to have have THE ugliest sweater.

I feel that I Missed Out in 1968.  --Cootleer

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