When I posted the last edition of my blog “Red Wellington Boots” my son Jonathan suggested I should add a photograph. I took a couple of me wearing the said boots and some of the boots alone. I had to admit that the photos of the boots minus me were better than the ones of me in the boots. Not a very flattering thought I admit but it reminded of me of times when I would go clothes shopping and find that some items looked better on the hanger than they did on me. Some things no matter how attractive just don’t suit some people and there is nothing that can be done about it.
When I was in my mid teens everyone, just everyone was wearing gingham check dresses with scooped necklines, tight waists, wide skirts and large puffed sleeves. They were very “fashionable” and as a very clothes conscious teenager I just had to have one. I persuaded my mother to come with me to look for the perfect dress. Our first port of call was a dress shop called Dorothy’s. It was a favourite shop of mine and I knew they would have the kind of dress I wanted. The lady who served us, (yes that was in the days when one would be served in a dress shop) knew exactly what I wanted. She escorted my mother and me to one of the changing rooms and went off to bring me a dress. The dress she brought was perfect, it had small blue checks with broider-anglice lace at the neckline and at the edge of the lovely, oh so fashionable sleeves. It was love at first sight on my part and I could not wait to try it on. The assistant discreetly withdrew to allow me to change into the dress. Mom helped me zip up the back and I turned to admire myself in the mirror, I was sure I was going to look gorgeous. Mom and I looked for a few moments at my reflection amazed at what I looked like, it was terrible. For some reason those sleeves that looked so good on so many of my friends looked hideous on me. Well maybe not hideous - just hilarious. We started to giggle and by the time the sales assistant returned to see how I looked we were in stitches, all but rolling on the floor in laughter. Then to make matters worse the assistant said “Oh Madam does look good” and she was rather put out that we just continued to laugh. She was determined to prove her point and collected all the other assistants in the shop to come and see “how good Madam looked”. They trouped passed one by one, peeped through the curtain and commented on just how “lovely” I looked as I started to change back into my own clothes and Mom and I wiped the tears of laughter from our eyes. We managed to get out of the shop without being down right rude to the staff but I did not think I would ever be able to go back to that shop again and keep a straight face while I bought something.
Writing this has reminded me of how different buying clothes was in those days. It was just the beginning of the mushrooming up of the large chain stores and we still went into clothes shops, asked for what we wanted and a staff member would look for it and bring it to the change room. If you asked for a summer blouses in white with long sleeves she would bring a few that would fit that description. If you did not like any of these she would hurry off and bring a few more. If none of what she had to offer suited you she would start on the cream ones and then the pale blue ones and you knew that there was no hope when she began showing you short sleeved red ones. It was often hard to get out of the shop without buying something and so one had to be very strong willed. At least in those days if the dress you had tried on did not fit you could ask the lady to bring you one in a different size and would not have to get dressed again to go back into the shop and change it yourself. Yes, we were certainly “served” in clothes shops back then but I think I prefer to be left to browse through the racks of merchandise and pick out what I think I might like to try on. I would much rather be ignored by the staff than be fussed over and have them try to pressure me into a purchase that I don’t really want.
By the way I did go back to Dorothy’s a few years later, I bought my wedding gown there. Mom was with me then too and we had a lovely time as I tried on all the beautiful gowns before I made my choice.
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