I did a shoot with my mother on Monday, wearing some of her vintage clothing: a 1973 Aquascutum trench, a 1974 Philip Somerville hat and a late 60s Jaeger shift. I’ve always worn her clothes and, since I was 15 or 16 have worn the clothes of hers that I played in from the dressing up box as a child. This purple crushed velvet dress, which I dug out of the attic a few weeks ago, was worn by my mother in about 1967 and used as a princess dress all through my childhood. It’s fully lined and has a heavy, hidden metal zip down the back that just feels vintage.
It was a gorgeous A-line but to me, at the tail end of the 80s, that A-line was the last word in frumpy, and I got our local dressmaker to turn it into a tight dress for me, (a decision I now bitterly regret) which a few years later I wore to my 18th birthday party. (A black tie dinner party for 24 people at my parent’s house. God we all thought we were soooo sophisticated.) And here is the photographic evidence:
I loved wearing it at the time, as no one else had anything remotely resembling it, although I suspect my decision to wear the dress may have had more to do with a combination of lack of budget and lack of choice giving me no real alternative.
Teens now don’t know they are born. When I was growing up there was nowhere on the High Street that sold clothes you’d want to wear and everything else was too expensive.Vintage — which people still called secondhand, foraging through relative’s wardrobes and a dollop of imagination were pretty much the only options.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, I love seeing this photo of you from when you were 18! You look wonderful in the dress. Must have been quite nostalgic when you pulled it out the attic! I wish my mother had kept her things from when she was young, I don’t think I own anything that she used to wear!
Oh so true! I spent every one of my teenage years dressed in hand me downs and vintage. But did I appreciate it? Of course not! What I wouldn’t give for the original 30’s black silk full length négligée ( from SAKS!!) that I managed to stick bubblegum to while drunk/stoned and then hid from my mum, or the original cashmere polo necks (one black, one cream) from Biba, I spent every penny I earned in The Real McCoy in Exeter or Revival in Totnes (OK, I still spend all my pocket money in there). Those really were the days!
Oh, and I just wore a sarong to a fancy dress party that my mum bought in Manchester in 1976 (before I was born) and that I have worn for fancy dress for last 15 years. God bless mums!
I skipped from photo to photo before reading the whole post and I thought the pic of you in the dress was recent. I thought, How cool that she can still wear and look great in a dress she wore 20 years ago!
Love the color of this dress. Seriously underutilized and superb with red lipstick.
Well, you look exactly the same. You b*tch! Hehe. (34 and bitter, here.)
I was lucky to grow up in a town with fantastic charity shops, I used to pillage them for my wardrobe. And still do!
Love the post,the dress is fab! I have a lot of my mums and nans vintage clothes,I love the uniqueness of them. I am also a big fan of exeters real mccoy! I agree as well about kids these days-there was no such thing as primark and new look was in its infancy,so fast fashion just didn’t exist! Xxx
Looking at prev photos on your blog-you don’t look any different.
Don’t you think it was more fun though,looking though Mums wardrobe and making do,i think it made us appreciate things more.I wish we’d kept my Mums stuff she had some lovely,60’s clothes which I would love to have now.Unfortunately we were a family that cleared things out-big mistake.
We keep being told how badly off the new young are and how baby boomers had it soooo good and have ‘robbed’ the current young generation. I’m not so sure — think a lot of young people would be horrified by what passed for comfortable middle class living not so long ago.
I thought this was a recent pic too! Gorgeous colour on you.
I can barely think about what I’ve done over the years to my Mum’s handmade 70’s frocks, including just giving them away.
Such a gorgeous picture of you at 18 — from the other pictures on here, it seems as if you have hardly changed at all!
Cx
I am very jealous as I couldn’t get to anything that I wore when 16. Beautiful dress, where’s the story about you and your mother going to be featured?
helena xx
Like Suzanna, I thought the photograph was a recent one of you modelling the dress– you really don’t look any different from that now! And the dress does look great on you– I’m just trying to imagine what it must have looked like as an A-line. Though purple velvet is something I wouldn’t be able to resist running my fingers over all the time if I were wearing it, it sounds so soft.
The clothes-buying options situation you described from your youth is more or less what people in my neck of the world face now– the affordable (non-ethnic) clothes are mostly total crap, the good stuff is too expensive, but there’s no concept of secondhand here. Boo.
I only realised it was taken when you were eighteen when I read the comments! You don’t look any different! xx
Gorgeous dress; my fav color.
My mum never kept any of her clothes for me to rummage around in. I would have loved to have had that opportunity to be really creative (perhaps that’s why I’m not!!)
You look completely adorable. I knew it would be a color I love…
Yes, about your comment & I’m older than you. My mother tried to throw out a silk blouse with martini glasses on it…believe me, it was way cool. I did not go to university in France for nothin’. She finally succeeded, damn her, when I went away for a weekend. Just yesterday, she said she was sorry about it. (No, I did not bring up this long-ago episode. We were chatting about “vintage” & all the clothes she sewed & wore back then.)
Thanks for the blast from the past.
You look exactly the same! Don’t you age?
Agree with the posts above, don’t you age!?!?! xx
i love this! i love how you always wear your mum’s clothing — so do i and have always done too. i’ve even worn her wedding dress before. I just love how close it makes us seem to each other. I actually love this dress and am having much fun imagining it a-line…
X
so pretty. x shayma
Completely agree on the dearth of decent clothes when we were teenagers. A burgundy velour tracksuit was the height of sophistication, especially when worn with burgundy suede pixie boots. And the less said about ra-ra skirts the better. A trip to Topshop in Oxford Street felt like a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Enjoying your blog. Best wishes Sarah