I’m not sure, when I look at photographs of myself from years gone, that I have one particular style. In fact, sometimes I think I’m just a trifle crazy.
My fashion has evolved from that of a staid young mum to a wild thing at times. Even today, I can still dither between the decent and the distressing. My fashion styles change like the wind!
Recently, I discovered a photograph of myself from a wedding. The image makes me cringe! I was wearing the latest in short dresses, and a coat in some sort of modern fabric. It was a badly posed photo, which looks scary to me now.
There is also a photograph of me wearing a dress from China. It was skin tight and there was barely enough room for me to breathe! I must have been around 22 years of age at the time.
So brazen have I been with my fashion choices, I’ve even posed in Victorian underwear, and have worn the top with a long skirt to a dance. At one point in my life, I dealt in vintage clothing.
Over the years I have worn minis and maxis and even hot pants, if that was the trend that took my fancy. Fortunately, I seem to have evaded a camera when wearing them. The ‘witch’s britches’ were the most revolting brown colour and they did nothing for my shape, or my sex appeal. As for the yellow mini, I didn’t feel it was short enough, so up came the hemline for maximum impact! Oh to be young with shapely legs again…
In more recent years I’ve taken to wearing brighter colours and flowing items. I used to love ‘hippie’ style clothes, and wore beads and fringes. My ‘twinset and pearls’ look suited a sedate holiday in the Lake District of England. Every phase of my life has been so different.
Some people prefer to fade into the background, never wanting to be ‘showy’. I’m not like that. I blame my mother, who wanted me on the stage, for my mad streak – I was dancing in sequinned dresses at age three. It made me want to dress up more than dress down.
For my first job I had to conform. I wore a dress with a white collar and white gloves. I worked in a boys’ college, very upmarket and established. Nursing later meant I wore a uniform. I projected an image – and wore the style – to suit the lifestyle. A nurse in my day had to look clean and calm, in order to be considered trustworthy. I can still appreciate some of the ‘old style’ uniforms. I remember mine had a stiff collar and a starched apron.
Now I’m just ‘me’. One any given day I can be wearing attire that is ‘decent and subdued’ or traffic stopping (I’m thinking of a particular red dress). I want to be like the lady in the poem – when I am old I shall wear purple and a red hat, perhaps? I just love fashion and how the trends have influenced my style over the years.