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Even though I really can't shop for clothes any more the usual way (wheelchairs put many restrictions on what I can reasonably wear), I still enjoy looking at all the blurbs that come from the department stores. The most recent batch captured my particular attention because it reminded me of what clothes looked like 30 years ago. Back then the styles had different names (bell bottoms instead of boot cut pants), but they looked remarkably similar. I still have a photograph of myself about the time of my first marriage in the 1960's wearing black and white printed bell bottom jeans and a black midriff top. Those were the days! The blurb that I am looking at shows a white suit with very wide-legged pants. The model is wearing a white jacket, too, and the ensemble is captioned "famous maker suit sale". On the same page a black and white print skirt with a three quarter sleeve white sweater is titled "career separates". But that outfit is tame compared to a short "spring dress" in a pink and purple print of big discs. The ad doesn't label it as working attire, however. Darn, I should have saved my mini skirts.
Another recent fashion look is "pre-ripped jeans". Two years ago my Florida son came to visit wearing a pair. When I commented on his being at the height of fashion, he remarked "yeah, ten years ago". I was taken aback. I could have sworn that I had just seen some country singer wearing jeans that had rips down the front of the legs. On my last trek looking for shoes to replace those bitten by an eager Skittles, I passed by stores selling jeans. Entire racks of those fashions had their fronts faded to look as if they had been worn during the Great Depression. I was no longer ashamed of what I was wearing, since it appears they are now very much in style. My jeans are not all ripped, though. For that look I need to go through the piles of things I brought over from New Jersey. Some of those pants are legitimately torn, mostly by cats but some by pricker bushes that are on my hit list for extermination. Speaking of torn pants, many of my husband's Dockers™ have been ripped when he wore them working in the yard or when he fell at his various jobs. In particular one brand new pair was shredded when he was hurrying, he said, to a meeting when he was in Maryland evaluating a school. Fortunately he was not injured in the fall, but the pants were totaled. In his dismay at what happened, he took them off, put on another new pair, and left the remains in the hotel room. They couldn't even be added to the collection of "work grubbies" that I have to make use of pants no longer suitable to wear to work. Another fashion trend that has crept into store ads is Capri pants. These are usually loose-fitting pants that end somewhere between the knee and the ankle. I have seen them on women who decided that shorts were not their best look but that it was too warm for long slacks. For them Capris filled the bill. I remember back in high school having a pair of black pants that were approximately that length. But back then they were called "pedal pushers", I guess because the bottoms would not get caught in a bicycle chain. A fashion first that I DON'T ever remember seeing is something called "crocks". These are shoes made totally out of rubber. They can go into the water and come out unharmed. They can also be worn with any sort of casual clothes, especially if you are under 18 years of age or walking into a lake or the surf to hunt for fish or clams. The displays I saw featured every color imaginable and lots of forms and cut out shapes. If it weren't for my wheelchair, I would have been tempted to try some. One final comment is the fabrics of these clothes. Over the years I have used material left from sewing my own clothes to put between plates to keep them from chipping. When my daughter-in-law noticed them she was laughing at the colors and patterns I used. I never considered myself radical, yet these patterns and colors could be called that. I strained to recall the garments I made from each. My daughter-in-law had a good laugh over some of them and so did I. I still have a big box of patterns for clothes from this period of time. I have offered them onto FreeCycle but have had no takers. My husband pointed out that these styles would be outdated now, but I believe that they are basic enough to suit many types of uses. And I could even put my box of fabrics up on FreeCycle to go with them! The prices on the patterns are low-less than $5 each-compared to patterns now which can be nearly $15! Clearly, my old stuff is a real bargain! Just Mom |
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