Clothes

When I started work I bought myself a black and white coat.  It was sort of like the pattern on David Jones bags.  I was proud of it and felt very modern and warm.   I also had a navy blue cape.  They were in fashion in the mid sixties and I felt the height of fashion when I was wearing it.  I wore it with a sort of furry hat that I am sure made me look like a mad rabbit without ears.  It didn't occur to me that I looked weird.  I was confident in my outfit and funny looks from people didn't dent my confidence at all.  My next coat was a beautiful teal colour and made of some entirely unsuitable material that let in every speck of cold there was in the winter.  I loved the coat and even though it didn't keep me warm to wore it when I went out to the pictures and so on at night.  I looked gorgeous; well the coat did.

Nowadays I look at the young girls who are wearing denim short shorts in the middle of winter.  I don't know how they can do that when it is so cold, however, when I think back to my unsuitable coat I think I understand where they are coming from.  If you feel comfortable in something even though it may not be particularly sensible, you feel good.  What is a little cold between friends?

Now I opt for nice warm clothes.  I like to wear layer, upon layer, upon layer.  All very Sara Lee really.  I love to wear lovely thick socks, Ugg boots, track pants, spencer, t-shirt and jacket and so on.  I have a lot of lovely warm scarves.  Some of them are silk that I hand dye.  I love these scarves and hate to part with them.  The idea of course is to sell them.  However, I digress.  I also have some beautiful soft scarves that I bought in Vietnam.  They were incredibly cheap and are the best scarves I have ever owned.

I do love to be warm but when I go shopping I have to remove some of my layers otherwise I would die from heat prostration inside the shopping centre.  From the car to the shop I freeze but once I enter the shopping centre's sauna like atmosphere I am able to suffer the temperature.  It is at a time like this that the young girls come in to their own. They are so perfectly happy in their little shorts that I am jealous of their comfort.

When I find myself being critical of what people wear and do a bit of the 'when I was a girl' I must try to remember down the long years to my unsuitable coat and my cold legs when I wore fashionable clothes.  I really  believe that 'fashionable' and 'sensible' do not go together in the same sentence.  Now that I have reached the age group that I call pre-senile I believe that it is comfort rather than fashion that dictate my clothes purchases.  I want to be warm and comfortable and also as long as it 'fits' I will wear it.  I am now 'pie a la mode' rather than 'modish.'