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.
