Fashion in the Land of Fleece and Comfortable Shoes

Maybe it was because I had two older sisters that clothes were so important to me at a young age.  Or perhaps it’s just because I was a girl.  I wore white “leather” boots in first grade.  And I was the first in my second grade class to wear bell bottom pants.  Doesn’t that say it all?  Fringed suede vest in third grade.  Top that!  My nine year old son commented, “Mom, you looked like a boy when you were little.”  Is he crazy?  I was the most fashionable elementary school student around.  I was stylin’, kiddo.

In junior high school, I really came into my own.  I scanned my older sisters’ Seventeen and Glamor magazines and if I couldn’t find what I wanted in a store, then I made it myself.  There wasn’t a lot to choose from for girls clothes in Bangor, Maine in the mid-1970s.  My big catch was a new wardrobe and then some when I visited my aunt in Washington, DC where they had a Syms  (much like TJ Maxx.)  I think she had more fun than I did watching how excited I was to shop in a real store.  I returned with a new outfit for everyday for the rest of the school year.  It should come as no surprise that I was voted “Most Fashionable” for my junior high year book.

High school was a little more challenging.  The preppy look that was still lingering got mixed in with Pat Benatar spandex. If that wasn’t ugly enough then there was the hair.  What on earth were stylists thinking?  In terms of hair trends, I’d take the “Rachel" from the television show Friends any day over the tight perms we all paid for and struggled to maintain.  How many of us had our senior pictures taken with that godforsaken look?  Add to it the hair accessory that you wore around your forehead and, oh, it’s just too difficult to explain.  Frankly, there was no fashion from 1980 - 1983.

College gave me a reprieve from the whole fashion scene.  I was in Boston and all I needed to fit in was to wear black.  And own a pair of Guess and Marithe Francois Girbaud jeans, which was my whole clothing budget for the year.  However, my dear aunt in Washington, DC took it upon herself to outfit me with the latest from Talbots.  Here I am, a poor struggling college student just wanting to look cool, and I’m being sent clothes for a 35-year-old office worker.  I tried to explain my plight to her without sounding ungrateful, but she never quite got it.  Maybe that’s why I ended up as an office clerk for my work-study job.  I had the right clothes for it.

After college my aunt’s clothes were very helpful.  I ended up in human resources in downtown Boston.  She sent me boxes of her old suits and in my spare time I would alter them.  I’m pretty sure they were the most conservative clothes I’ll ever be seen in but she saved me a lot of money that I didn’t have and gave me something to do on weekends since I couldn’t afford to go out.

I left the corporate world after a few years and became a bit of a ski bum, where I committed my biggest fashion faux pas.  I spent some time in Switzerland on a low budget and actually skied the Alps in jeans.  At the time it just didn’t matter to me.  I had so much fun that I must have been completely oblivious to the looks of horror from the jet set crowd in their one piece powder suits.  The language barrier can be a good thing.

A lot has changed since then.  I’ve given all my suits and high heals away and am living peacefully in the land of fleece and comfortable shoes.  My boys' clothing needs come first and I’m quite happy in my typical outfit of jeans and a fleece. My latest purchase is a pair of sneakers so I could start running for the first time in my life.  I’ve been pulling out my ski clothes to wear on runs as it gets colder.  But I can’t keep running in all black so the time has come for me to join my sisters in the north country and actually spend money on workout clothes.  Who knew shopping for leggings and a reflective top could be so exciting?