a spaghetti strap by any other name would feel just as free
8 tank tops to break dress code in
It was 8th grade and summer was almost here. It was that point in the school year where every lesson plan was a movie day. I would drift off into a drool-y slumber, lulled by the darkness of the classroom and the hum of the VHS tape. The original ASMR.
On such a lazy hot school day, I wore a yellow spaghetti strap tank top. It was one of my favorite shirts. I felt delicate and cute in it, because it had a white scalloped trim across the chest and a tiny mermaid embroidered on the front. It was technically against dress code but the middle school administrators were probably too checked out to police my outfit, right?
Wrong. I was walking to my locker after Mrs. Hill’s class to get my textbook for Mrs. Dee’s class when the principal herself, a stern white woman with curly short hair and a puckered lemon frown, started marching towards me with her walky talky and jingling keys. I knew I was about to get busted. She told me to cover up because my straps were too thin. Per dress code they had to be at least three fingers wide. Mortified, I went silent and put on a sweater for the rest of the day.
To this day, I still relish the freedom and carelessness that spaghetti straps represent. They can be thin like wispy angel hair pasta or thick like an eggy pappardelle. Below, 8 tank tops on my wishlist for noodle girl summer.
