Aaah, is it just me that looks back at our fashion mistakes with sentiment? Oh my gosh, gone are the days of the 'flip flops and flares' combo, and me telling my friends "well they would have worn stuff like this at Woodstock". And the days of me wearing surfer t-shirts with ankle-length skirts are completely over and hopefully, should NEVER return....
I've always has a mahoosive love for the 1960s, and when I was around 10, I was totally obsessed with Woodstock. Yeah, I suppose that Woodstock was a pretty groovy thing, but it wasn't very groovy that I thought it would be cool to 're-live' 1969 by wearing clothes that I would think 'looked' of that era. I also thought I was 'super cool' to listen to bands such as Jefferson Airplane and The Jimi Hendrix experience. I also had quite a thing for Country Joe and the fish.
When I was 12, my favourite outfit was (I'm not sure if I've told you this before...) when I used to wear this cream collar-less shirt with tiny purple flowers all over it. I suppose it was actually alright, but because I thought I looked really cool when I wore it with a matching purple waistcoat with embroidered flowers on it (it had belonged to my mother in the 90s), and a pair of flared jeans that I remember buying from a sale at Dorothy Perkins; oh yeah, I would always 'finish the look off' with a pair of flip flops and maybe a few long necklaces, you know the really bright 'ethnic' and 'fairtrade' ones....
Well, it took me WAAAAYYY to long to grow out of that what I can only think of as a 'hippie' and 'down with all that tie-die and flip flops' faze, and I had better NEVER EVER see those days again.
I am about to show you a comparison of me back in my 'Woodstock loving' days and just how I look nowadays...
Oh my goodness, do not laugh at my long hair or whatever I am doing with my hands on the photo on the left, but I ACTUALLY used to go out dressed like that. I even think that I could have been 13 in that photo (dun dun duunnn!). I must have thought at that time that the fringe made me look cool and 'hip', well, I was totally wrong.
Hopefully on the picture on the right, I might look a bit more trendy and 'normal' (hence me wearing a Victorian-style blouse from the 70s). Since growing out of that faze, I've had my hair cut and now wash it on a regular basis, and tie it back quite often. Gone are the days of flip flops and roll-necks and flared jeans. I went in River Island yesterday, and saw what used to be my 'dream pair of jeans', which I had last seen in there a couple of years ago. They are what I would call 'ultimate flares' or just 'bellbottoms', because I'm talking about the BIGGEST flare in them that you could imagine. I could have bought them, as they only had one left (they were in the sale), and they were in my size, and were only £5. I'm sooo glad I didn't actually buy them, because, they may have looked cool in the seventies or if you are tall with long, slim legs. I am unfortunately stuck with rather short, stubby legs, so I probably couldn't have 'pulled them off'. Also, I could not risk getting them, because every time I wore them I would probably spend the day looking back at the 11 year old me and think that if I had owned them all those years ago, I would have probably been wearing them with a roll neck, or, a floral shirt with a brightly coloured waistcoat and, Urg.... flip flops.