Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Life Map Told Through Clothes Through (My) Ages



I suppose until I add pictures this will be a list rather than a map of clothes that were favorites or somehow significant in my life.  For a writing class, I created a life map on a large piece of paper, dabbed it with blue watercolors, hand printed a brief description and a sketch within each panel.
The text is below.
One entry contains pure, white hot rage.
Significantly(?), entries end with my wedding dress worn 20 years ago!

- "Beach suit": cotton blue and white stripes, ruffled bloomers, sewn by my mother, favorite beach toy was a white Styrofoam ring with a red plastic horse's head

- Head band, felted wool flowers, szarotki (edelweiss), worn in kindergarden class picture

- School uniform, worn for 8 years in elementary school, "plain" uniform grades 1 to 6; with burgundy bolero grades 7 and 8, white blouse with Peter Pan collar underneath, uniform was a blue and gray plaid, navy blue beanie with long hairpin, white "pearl" button at end

-Fit and flair dresses, identical except for colorway: navy and white, lavender and white

- First Holy Communion dress: filmy white shift with veil, white stockings, white stockings with silver buckles, formal portrait with Rosary.

- Coral wool dress: tiny buttons run down the front

- My mom sewed me a dress of plaid, pink, floral fabric.  I asked her to shorten it twice.

-  Two-toned green velvet oxford shoes with a stacked heel.

- Pullover, short-sleeved sweater, folkloric pattern; most often paired with green turtleneck

- Blue pullover sweater with yellow flower, walked in neighborhood, saw sad pony in dusty front yard

- High school uniform: hunter green, bolero, 2 pleat skirt, pants for winter, knee socks; some girls rolled up skirt at waist to shorten, rolled down again in view of Sisters

- Wide-legged elephant pants: blue jean patchwork, flare and flair!

- Tiered sea foam green skirt, pieced, very soft and flowy

- 8th grade graduation dress: green print, overprint of violets, windowpane detail at collar bone, received huge bunch of peonies from Godmother

- High school graduation outfit: white spaghetti strap top, pencil skirt, cropped white jacket, 
more peonies

- College graduation dress: white coatdress with pinstripes and rather pronounced shoulder pads

- Zeena from Ethan Frome set store by her pickle dish, as a college freshman, I had few pretty clothes. I set store by a soft, pretty powder blue turtleneck and a wine-colored, ruffled, silk blouse.  My college roommate borrowed each without permission after I asked her not to.  She laughed when I saw her wearing my sweater. She expected me to be out of town. She also ruined silk blouse with armpit stains.  The crowning touch was when we moved out of the dorm room, she left behind a broken glass jar of honey dried on tight to the floor tiles under her bed. I cleaned it up to get our security deposit back.

- Big, black coat shaped like a bathrobe, dolman sleeves;
I think I eventually put it in the alley on top of a garbage can for someone to take;
still miss it

-Wedding dress: remade vintage silk satin, sailor collar and split sleeves; long train



2 comments:

Jessica@CapeofDreams said...

Nice walk down memory lane. It would be fun to see some pictures of some of these clothes. Isn't it funny how you can miss articles of clothing?

tess said...

I think some may be in my mom's attic steeped with memories and dust.
Some are like old friends warm and fuzzy like an alpaca cardigan. ;-)