Ship of Fools: Do you think will them styles ever come back?

Thread: Do you think will them styles ever come back? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Hurriedly fossicking through a wardrobe to find something smart to wear out the other evening, I came upon the very thing - a black jersey skirt with gold embroidery that I bought 10? 15? years ago. I also came upon many other skirts of equal vintage. I hardly ever wear skirts: tights make my legs itch. But if I did, these are the sort I would still like.

So my question is this: at what point do you decide that a certain way of dressing is never going to re-enter your life? That you will never again wear a business suit? or an evening dress? or a band tour T-shirt? or that colour? or that length?

What items have you - or can't bear to - take to the charity shop because a part of your life goes with them?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

That will be the beautiful floaty floral summer dresses I bought 20 years ago and only wore about 3 times. Getting rid of them's kind of an admission of defeat: that I've ruled out ever being invited to any more garden parties on warm summer afternoons and all the rest of it. But they're beautiful, elegant and in great condition, and I don't want to part with them yet or give up the hope that one day I might just be invited to an event again, or even just have a garden of my own to wear them in on hot days.

They will have to go one of these days though, when I look simply too old to wear them.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

I'm still saving my Rambo hairband from the eighties for the day I'll be able to wear it again.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I say the hell with it. I will wear what I will wear, and become one of those odd old ladies left behind by time. Like Lady Violet, on Downton Abbey. It helps that my wardrobe is eclectic anyway.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm still saving my Rambo hairband from the eighties for the day I'll be able to wear it again.

You've still got hair? You're confident you'll still have hair? Lucky you!

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Albertus: You've still got hair? You're confident you'll still have hair? Lucky you!

I do and I am [Smile]

I understand it normally skips a generation. My father has been bald since his early thirties. But my grandfather, when he passed away he had a rather beautiful scalp of thick white, rather long (for his time) hair.

My hair is relatively long, I think I can do a MacGyver with an eighties hair band [Big Grin]

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

My cassock and cotta hang unused (but not unloved) in my closet. I haven't given up hope that some day I'll join a church choir that observes liturgically correct dress. But any choir I've sung in lately either sings in street clothes or purpose-made robes.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:
Albertus: You've still got hair? You're confident you'll still have hair? Lucky you!
I do and I am I understand it normally skips a generation. My father has been bald since his early thirties. But my grandfather, when he passed away he had a rather beautiful scalp of thick white, rather long (for his time) hair.

My hair is relatively long, I think I can do a MacGyver with an eighties hair band

My father had a full head of hair until his death at 68. I never met my grandparents but my grandfathers both lost most of theirs by the age of 40, so it's no surprise that I have lost most mine (a lot like my avatar). My eldest son is losing his in the same way and I expect middle son to do so too.

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :

I still have all my tour and related t-shirts from my teens/early 20s rolled up against the never-to-be day that I wear them again. Mostly because they represent a little map of a few formative years of my life and if they fit I would wear them.

However, I can't see them ever actually fitting, unless I develop some dreadful wasting disease and reverse the natural mid-20s broadening of shoulders etc.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I say the hell with it. I will wear what I will wear, and become one of those odd old ladies left behind by time. Like Lady Violet, on Downton Abbey. It helps that my wardrobe is eclectic anyway.

I'm with you. I wear what I like, including a few items of clothing from when I was in college 40+ years ago.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Snags:
I still have all my tour and related t-shirts from my teens/early 20s rolled up against the never-to-be day that I wear them again. Mostly because they represent a little map of a few formative years of my life and if they fit I would wear them.

However, I can't see them ever actually fitting, unless I develop some dreadful wasting disease and reverse the natural mid-20s broadening of shoulders etc.

There are places that will make quilts from t-shirt fronts. I've been tempted to do that with some of my souvenir shirts from over the years (and around the world), but it would be a huge quilt, and I really don't know what I would do with it.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Cut the relevant bit from the tees -- usually the front logo. You don't want the sleeves, hems, backs, etc. Buy a large number of cheap picture frames, all the same size and color -- Ikea is good for this. The number should be a good multiple, like say 12 or 18 or 20 or 24. Load tee shirt images into frames, and hang them all, side by side by side, on a wall. You want a 4 by 5 layout, or 6 by 3, or whatever, some coherent tiling pattern. It is easiest to lay this out in advance with post-it notes. Once you have a close tight tiling arrangement, hang them on the wall. Everyone will be envious.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:
Albertus: You've still got hair? You're confident you'll still have hair? Lucky you!
I do and I am I understand it normally skips a generation. My father has been bald since his early thirties. But my grandfather, when he passed away he had a rather beautiful scalp of thick white, rather long (for his time) hair.

My hair is relatively long, I think I can do a MacGyver with an eighties hair band
My father had a full head of hair until his death at 68. I never met my grandparents but my grandfathers both lost most of theirs by the age of 40, so it's no surprise that I have lost most mine (a lot like my avatar). My eldest son is losing his in the same way and I expect middle son to do so too.

According to impeccable medical authority (daughter-in-law) baldness passes down from the mother's side. My father had more hair when he died than I have now, but my maternal grandfather and his brother were quite polished at the north pole, so she may be right, and I am doomed.

As to fashions, my 40 year old tweed jacket from Dunn's in Edinburgh (long gone) still serves me well and I look just as fashionable now as I did when I bought it.

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :

I'm flattered by the assumption that any of them still have sleeves [Smile]

I shall have to see if Mrs Snags is amenable to the idea of t-shirt artwork adorning the walls...

Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :

I don't think I have ever thrown away any item of clothing that hadn't become a danger to public decency. My socks have become a source of much amusement at the Karate club due to the performance enhancing cutaway design. As long as the sock covers everything above the level of the shoe I can live without a heel or toe section. My clothes go through four stages - best, everyday, gardening and rags/heavy punchbag filling. My kickbags have 1970/80s nylon at the bottom, 1990s cotton in the middle and C21st technical wicking rags at the top.

Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

I have my "I Ran the World" tee shirt from 25th May 1986...The only timer I have ever taken part in an organised Fun Run (there's an oxymoron if ever I heard one). It was our first wedding anniversary and we ran it in Cardiff. I won't ever get rid of it. But I don't wear it either.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

I have a Walthamstow village Festival t-shirt from 1992 (something like that - early 1990s). It no longer fits me, but my youngest son is wearing it now. It is the same age as him.

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

"Do you think will them styles ever come back? "

No. Sadly, no. I've lived about a million years now and nothing I've saved ever has come back, not even those "classics" I thought would last forever. There's always just enough difference the second time around to make the old saved things not work. For example we looked at the 1942 pictures of our mom wearing those suits with shoulder pads and laughed and laughed. Then in the 1980's the women's power suits came along with shoulder pads that made our heads look like coconuts, but they weren't the same suits our mother wore, no nipped in waist for instance.

But, like Brenda, I wear what I like and what's comfy and what shoes I won't fall down in. Plus if I ever get the chance to meet Ariel and she's not wearing one of the long flowered dresses I've always pictured her in I'll be disappointed.

If I ever get my figure back to a place where I can stand to try on clothes in front of those ghastly mirrors, I'm just going to throw every thing out and buy a small, but new, wardrobe. It's the only thing to do if you want to be safe, style wise.

[ 24. October 2015, 12:08: Message edited by: Twilight ]

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

Even if loons came back, I have put on too much weight in the past 45 years to bget into the green - yes green - pair in my spare bedroom's wardrobe.

[ 24. October 2015, 14:31: Message edited by: leo ]

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dormouse:
I have my "I Ran the World" tee shirt from 25th May 1986...The only timer I have ever taken part in an organised Fun Run (there's an oxymoron if ever I heard one). It was our first wedding anniversary and we ran it in Cardiff. I won't ever get rid of it. But I don't wear it either.

Over here that same day was "Hands Across America" -- I still have my shirt too.

There was no running involved; it was supposed to be a coast-to-coast line of people holding hands and singing. (Unfortunately, there were several breaks in the chain.)

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:

But, like Brenda, I wear what I like and what's comfy and what shoes I won't fall down in.

I agree, fashion doesn't come into it. That bus left long ago. And I think I mostly fit into everything I've got. But when will the chiffon dress in blue and silver, with matching jacket ever be called on again? Or the Persian jacket in corded silk? Will there ever be an excuse for the genuine kimono and obi?

When do I accept that I may as well chuck everything bar a dozen pairs of stretch jeans, 50 or so T shirts, ditto socks, and a sea chest full of hand knits?

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
But when will the chiffon dress in blue and silver, with matching jacket ever be called on again? Or the Persian jacket in corded silk? Will there ever be an excuse for the genuine kimono and obi?

A local theatre group would probably be thrilled to have those!

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

When do I accept that I may as well chuck everything bar a dozen pairs of stretch jeans, 50 or so T shirts, ditto socks, and a sea chest full of hand knits?

That's pretty much where I'm at except for the hand-knits. Having found a job where it's acceptable to wear jeans and T-shirts every day, I have mostly abandoned anything dressier, though in cooler weather I will rise to the occasional sweater instead of a T-shirt. I keep a couple of the long, flowy skirts I like, and one pair of dressy black pants, for church, and I have two mildly dress-up dresses for the one or two times a year I get invited to something formal.

The things that will never return for me are any sort of "office clothes" -- the skirt-and-jacket kind of combo things. They were only for work when I worked in the kind of environment where they were expected, and I find the too uncomfortable for church so would not willingly wear them now. They have gone their way, hand in hand with makeup of any kind, down the long road marked That Part of My Life Is Over Now. If I ever have to take another job (hoping the current one with its relaxed dress code will last me to retirement) at which jeans are not acceptable, I'll have to go with the "crazed elderly hippie" look that I wear to church, because Ladies' Power Suit is gone for good.

I still hope to be wearing T-shirts with vaguely comic, ironic, or pop-cultural slogans when I'm laid out in the funeral home.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Used to be, you were buried in a shroud.

I like the idea that when it come our time to squeak and gibber in the streets our revanant forms will be sporting cereclothes that say 'One Tequila Two Tequila Three Tequila Floor'.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Before your old business clothes get too out of date, donate them. There are charities that funnel business wear to homeless people so that they can apply for jobs. Formal garments can go to charities who collect formal wear for girls who can't afford one for their high school prom. Anything period or really odd can go to theatre troupes, who are always needing to costume some production or another.

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:

I still hope to be wearing T-shirts with vaguely comic, ironic, or pop-cultural slogans when I'm laid out in the funeral home.

Oh there's a nice topic for baby boomers and beyond -- what do you want your T-shirt to say in your casket?

"Rock on," "Dylan rules!" "Forever young," "Keep on truckin'?"

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

Today I was wearing one that says: "National Sarcasm Society: Like we need your support."

That would probably do fine for my shroud.

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

[Killing me]

It would make for a jolly viewing.

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
Oh there's a nice topic for baby boomers and beyond -- what do you want your T-shirt to say in your casket?

"Rock on," "Dylan rules!" "Forever young," "Keep on truckin'?"

"Choose Life"

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