Fashion

I have written about fashion previously (Big Hair for example). Last night I went up to the shops to get some takeaway for my dinner. As I slopped out of the car, I suddenly had a thought about what my mother would have thought of my appearance. I was wearing my grotty, sloppy ugh boots, track pants, a loose top (with, yes, no bra underneath), and an even looser jacket over the top of it all.

I can remember having to wear gloves and a hat to go “into town”. I can remember arguments between my sister and my mother about girls wearing jeans “into town”.

Going into town was a major excitement. We didn’t do it often, and remember I am talking about the days before the big shopping centres where you can buy most of what you need from local shops. We didn’t have a car, so we had to take the bus. You had to make sure you were properly dressed. My mother, who rarely wore make-up, would put on her lipstick and her rouge (blush for the current generations). We would be inspected to make sure we came up to scratch and weren’t going to embarrass my mother with our appearance.

My mother would have been appalled at my appearance the other night. When I looked around, no one even noticed by dishevelled appearance. In fact, I noticed some girls in the shop with me who were wearing “fashionable” ugh boots. They looked very comfortable and nice. Comfortable was not in our vocabulary in those days. It wasn’t about something loose which felt good. It was about something that looked good. We didn’t wear something which we could loosen when we went out for dinner, we ate less so we didn’t fill our clothes too much. Now, when I know I’m going to pig out at a meal, I wear something that I know will stretch with my stomach !!

Language is another area that has really changed. I was told off, even as an adult, if I said “Shit”. You never heard it on television, when we finally got television, and certainly did not hear “fuck”, and the “C” word I didn’t even know. I remember my sister telling my father to “fuck off” when I was about 10 years old. I didn’t know what the word was or meant. I only knew by the reaction that she had done a very, very bad thing. I don’t remember what happened after that. I suspect I disappeared, as would all smaller, younger, smarter sisters when they knew that the shit was about to hit the fan.

Every so often when I’m watching television, getting ready to go out, or even just watching the way people dress at work, I contemplate the changes in fashion over the last 60 years.

Madeleine

Saturday, 28 June 2008