Two things got me thinking about my latest blog post. The sight of a luminous green scrunchie in a passerby's hair, on the way home from the office the other day, and the desire last weekend for Mr LadyM to see my baby and toddler photos during a trip home to the parentals.
There were rules in place for this photo viewing. Anything up until the age of eight was acceptable. Then it all tends to be come very 90's and the "awkward stage". I thought it was just me, but on discussion with my therapist - during getting my nails done, not on the couch! She too confirmed that she had an awkward stage. Phew, not just me then.
Sadly my mothers filing of photographs is not in date order, although she did religiously write the dates on the back through the years. Which meant a few photos above the age of eight slipped through the net. The first one being, first year at Secondary school, official school photo. Yes all blurred tree background and for some reason a fake log to lean on?! As this was pulled from the photo box both my mother and I said, simultaneously "Oh, it's all about the watch". For I wasn't too worried about what I looked like in the photo, as centre stage using the fake log as a perfect resting point was a massive faced watch. Black leather strap, fake gold outer casing and a large white clock face. Looking back now maybe it was my first attempt at oversized accessories but it was just awful! I wore it a lot for about two years. I don't wear a watch now, maybe that was my need for a watch covered for a lifetime.
So what else do I quiver about when I think about my childhood fashion sense?
Well there was the Global Hyper-techni-colour tee shirt and cycling short phase, lets move on. There was the gigantic pink ruffled headband worn at primary school that made my head look twice as big as normal and rather alien but I loved it. Very Ab-Fab before I even knew the show existed.
Another thought on fashion was about trends tried at a young age, never to be repeated. For me it was dungarees. For me and my best friend at the time, lets call her H for she may not want this to go against her fashion sense now... It was the white dungarees. In shorts version, not long. Simple white denim dungarees.
I don't recall who had them first but we both had a pair. We wore them a lot. I'm surprised no one took to calling us "Mario and Luigi". All summer long we wore them with different tee shirts underneath. Always a block colour, always too big and baggy and never a print in sight. Until disaster struck. Sadly I can't remember who to, but I suspect I was the victim. One day the well worn dungarees came out of the washing machine and were no longer white. But a very interesting (not in a good way) shade of off white/pink. That was it. Game Over. Sadly I cannot find any photo evidence of this magnificent young fashion trend we took too.
Somewhere along the line in my childhood a forcing of wearing a velvet dress must have occurred as I have a distinct phobia of velvet now. The photo browsing didn't unearth any photos to support this but there were plenty of boxes of photos of the Awkward Years that remained up opened in Mr LadyM's presence. So maybe I'll have to sit down with a glass of wine and try to find this piece of my fashion history to understand why the phobia exists.
I'll be reporting from New Zealand Fashion Week all this week - so keep your stylish eyes peeled for some fabulous fashion reporting.