The year was 1990 and my grandmother's sister had flown out for a visit. My grandmother lived on a farm and did factory work most of her life to supplement her income, so I rarely saw her dressed up. But when her sister came to town, she pulled out a few stops to impress her. This involved putting on her nicest polyester leisure suit in a rust color with matching large triangle collar blouse and a pair of basket weave flats. All of which were likely purchased new in the 1970s and worn so infrequently that they still looked basically new, so she couldn't justify parting with them.
Her sister, the fancy banker, wore an indentical outfit except in pastels. I remember looking at that outfit and feeling a little sad for how outdated my dear little granny looked, but there was some comfort in the fact that she wasn't dressed that way alone. That wasn't the only time I saw that suit, it made an appearance at every major event and it always broke my heart a little to see someone I loved so hopelessly out of style. The wheel never stops turning, it seems, as I have come to the sad realization recently that I am no longer on-trend. I was only ever on-trend by happenstance as I always just wore and purused fashion that I liked rather than was trendy, but there for a few years the fashion I loved was trendy and abundant. Now, not so much.
It didn't really seem to take very long until the songs I loved waiting to hear on the radio as a teen were suddenly muzak-ing their way to my ears in the aisles of the grocery store, but I have been surprised of late when I went to buy a replacement CD of a beloved album and found that this item is not only "out-of-print" but "very rare" and also"extremely expensive." Alright, that last description was mine, but still true. When we got back to the US from Japan, these albums were still available on Amazon, but now (eight? years later) it's only to be found in the garages of collectors who definitely know what they have and are charging accordingly.
The same thing has happened with all the ModCloth dresses I drooled over back in those years in Japan. Now they're all "rare/collector's item" pieces and cost as much 12 years later as they did brand new. Frankly I'm flummoxed. Although I have spent the better part of my teen and adult life seeking out and wearing vintage style clothes, I never thought the new things I wore during that time would be considered vintage so early in the game. Truly I thought I had another 20 years before the things I wore in the 90s were considered vintage. And believe me when I say I wish I had kept all my 90s Delia*s clothes now.
It seems a fitting (if not inevitable) coupling for someone who has so long loved and admired vintage to suddenly be vintage herself. On a long enough time line we all become vintage, but I guess I wasn't really expecting it to come around until I was sitting on an attic floor with a grand or great-grandchild opening dusty boxes of beautiful dresses and telling stories about how and when and where I wore each one. Here it is already, along with a full head of gray hair and a few stubborn wrinkles.
Well, my philosphy has always been to find peace through acceptance, to find beauty in each changing season instead of eternally in love with spring. So, does that mean that I will put away my favorite styles to embrace whatever is trending now? 'Fraid not. Does it mean I will lean toward timeless styles with far more beige and far less whimsy? Maybe a little, but I could never give up my novelty dresses entirely.
Ultimately they're what I love best and given that no one else on this ridiculous planet seems worried about offending me by wearing their gross stretchy pants and greasy hair tucked under a baseball cap, I guess that means I don't have to worry about what anyone else thinks about my style either. It's rather freeing actually. Maybe the stretchy pants people are on onto something there and maybe my grandmother was too. She liked how she looked and didn't care too much if the trends had changed, so maybe I shouldn't either.
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