Decisions, decisions!!

It may look like I don't think much about what I am going to wear on any given day.  As a child, maybe I didn't.  I often tell my students about how girls always wore dresses to school, and they are uniformly incredulous about that fact.  This dress was green and white check with a green skirt.  I remember really liking it, although it appears to be a bit shabby in this photo.  I think this is a summer photo, and the dress had probably been relegated to the "play dress" status.

I remember distinctly my first experience with hating what I was wearing:  Joan had outgrown a brown and gold plaid linen dress with a large collar and cuffs.  It was awful.  It was apparently the only thing in the house for me to wear one day, and I balked.  My mom said I had to wear it, and I had to go to school.  I recall sitting on the curb, crying and refusing to go.  I must have gone - perhaps the memory was so terrible that I buried it so deep it has not re-surfaced, but I can't remember anything beyond sitting on the curb.

 

Junior high was another story.  I worried about my wardrobe all the time.  This skirt was gray, black, and red plaid.  My mother made it for me.  The sweater was shades of gray with black.  I recall noticing two girls in my ward who appeared to go a whole month without repeating what they wore.  I was incredulous about that - and covetous.  I recall thinking that if I could go a whole month without repeating what I wore, I would be in heaven.  I would wash and iron my clothes on the weekend and line them up in the closet.  I would feel so well-dressed - until I had to start choosing something to wear each day - when I would realize how little I owned.  The focus then was not on a few well-chosen pieces.  At least not at the junior high I attended!

Also, my mom insisted that we wear bobby sox - and that was not the style - little flats with no socks were the style.  I would take off my socks down the street aways and stuff them in a bush - and then retrieve them on my way home.  My mom would comment about how I never seemed to get my socks dirty - she was impressed!!  And maybe she knew what I was doing and just didn't say!

 

 

College was another matter entirely.  In my high school years - and I have few photos of what I was wearing in those years - I started saving and spending for the clothes I wanted - and felt I needed to have.  There was a charming dress shop called Beckwiths - I stopped by there often on my way home from high school - and usually had something lovely on lay-away - so I'd make my payments and dream about the day I got to take it home.  I am actually sorry I don't have photos of some of those dresses, because they were really quite beautiful.  When college loomed on the horizon, I was a committed reader of Seventeen magazine and had plans for my college wardrobe.  I saved as diligently for that as I did for tuition and room and board!  I will say this about my mom - she absolutely never questioned how I spent my money.  Years later I would think, gee, I wish she'd encouraged me to save more.  But I think letting me spend my money the way I wanted to was really better for me in the long run.  I saved for things I wanted - so I did learn to save.  And I didn't feel deprived.  I would get my hair done at a somewhat expensive salon - and that made me feel glamorous.  Sometimes a girl needs to feel glamorous!

 

It's obvious that there were times in my life when fashion was not at the forefront of my concerns - this photo ought to prove that!  Actually, I would wear all the really tacky stuff around the house, so I could save the good stuff for wearing when I left the house!  I think we all do that - at least I do.  I will get dressed for the day and think, "Well, I won't waste getting that dirty - I will save it for something special."  Something special often never comes though!

 

This was A-9 Pin Day - you had to go to LA Unified Schools to know what that is - but it's a special day.  My mom made this brown cotton dress - and the "stiff slip" that made the skirt bouffant.  "Stiff slips" were all the rage, but we really couldn't afford them - so my mom made ours out of net and the top was the cut off top of a pair of cotton underpants - when underpants went up to your waist!  Every Saturday we starched them and clipped them to the clothesline so they dried full and bouffant.  A little silly-sounding I know - but then some styles are pretty silly nowadays too!

My point?  Well, "what to wear today" seems to be the major decision I make on a daily basis.  Not sure why it becomes such an issue.  Perhaps because what I wear seems to influence how my day goes.  And I have some real issues with "comfort," and the wrong fit or feel can ruin the day for me.  Some of it might be "body image."  I will complain to my hair stylist that I can't find the hair style that I really love.  And it often  means that I need to lose 5 or 10 lbs. or nothing will look good!

And I am definitely one of those who wears 20% of her clothing 80% of the time.

And I'm actually starting to purge and acknowledge that fact - in fact, it's one of my new year's resolutions!

I'll let you know how it goes.