Fashion Memories from Years Gone By

[kitty9]

I just thought it might be fun to start a thread of fashion memories from when we were younger. I was talking with some friends last night and were were all laughing with some of the stuff we remembered.

 

For me, in elementary school I remember "Ben Casey" shirts were big. They were just cotton blouses that were made to look like old fashioned doctor's uniforms. That was the time of the Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare tv shows. We also had what we called "go go skirts" which were slim skirts that had fringe at the hem. You had to wear the matching go go boots with them.

 

I remember the huge bellbottomed pants that you wore with fringed suede vests.

 

I went to Catholic schools and I remember having to kneel in front of the nuns and if our skirts didn't touch the floor, we were sent home. We couldn't wear sleeveless anything or pullover sweaters. The boys had to wear shirts with collars and dress pants and they couldn't wear their hair ducktailed.

[JanetMarie]

Good topic, Darcie!

 

I recall from the 70's the artist shirts. We wore the big white shirts to school and thought we were artsy F _ _ rtsy. ;)

[Lois R]

Oh wow...tie-dyed shirts......and bleached jeans....that made a mess LOL (bleached them myself):confused:

 

As a little girl....my Mom MADE ME wear Saddle Shoes......don't ask me WHY:eek:

Even when we went on summer vacations.....example, we met friends in North Carolina...we drove up from FL and they drove down from NY.....my best friend always got to wear sneakers....no matter......my Mom made me wear the stupid saddle oxfords! YIKES:( ...now Mom is gone...I guess It didn't hurt me to wear them...but she had this thing about saddle shoes! And at 11 years old....it is a BIG THING:rolleyes:

[getaway101]

Saddle oxfords....YUK!! How well I remember. My mom always made me wear them too. The only ones who wore them were cheerleaders:) Any I still have the scar on top of my foot when I got my first pair of penny loafers (with my babysitting money) and they were too tight. But I refuse to tell me mom. Whom did it hurt? Who learned the lesson? Anyway, I am also from the "hotpants & miniskirt" era. Would like to be able to wear them today :rolleyes:

 

 

[Lois R]

Getaway...I never wore hotpants or mini skirts:eek: ...I was a tomboy...most of the time anyway!

And I would never want to wear them now...my thighs won't let me...and I would scare everyone away:eek: LOL

 

Oh Saddle Oxfords......glad I wasn't the only one who had to wear them!

[dustyroad]

oh, i love this thread. i remember mini shirts that were so short i cant beleive we were alowed to leave the house let alone go to school. and we spent hours wrapping our boyfriends class ring with angora yarn. it had to match our outfit for the day. god forbid if it was the wrong color or was not fuzzy enough. and when i was young my cousin wore saddle shoes with two pairs of really thick bobby socks folded down twice. and another thing i remember was her wallet, it was so thick she could hardly get it in her purse. a picture of everyone she knew was in there. i love these memories.

[JanetMarie]

Oh, my gosh!!! I remember wearing loafers "with the penny in them!!!"

[kitty9]

Oh my gosh, I forgot about the angora and the class ring!!!! It absolutely had to be angora and not just any old knitting wool.

 

Remember long leg panty girdles? How about those insane garter belts? I had one that I swear you could use as a sling shot. And when you sat down in class, every once in a while you would hear a loud "ping" and you knew someone had a garter pop open.

 

Oh, and BTW, I still have a pair of saddle shoes that I wore in high school ----been a size five since I was 14 and have never gone up a shoe size. I bring them along and wear them on 50's night with rolled up jeans, a twin set, and a scarf tied around my neck.

[lka1012]

Oh gosh, I HATED garter belts. And I have t-shirts longer than some of the dresses I used to wear. My mother kept telling me she wanted to hang a sign on my back that said, "I am NOT responsible for the dress of this child!"

[ajpack]

When I was in junior high it was a status symbol how many mohair sweaters you had.

 

Anybody wear the little bows in your hair---either at the side or smack dab right in front above your bangs! :eek:

 

How about madras? Purses---wrap around skirts--headbands---shirtwaist dresses. Head to toe madras!

 

Did you wear the flowered girdles? Bright colored pettipants?

 

Great thread!

 

Anne

[LoriLinay]

But remember during "that time" before stick on pads? And you had to wear that big old BELT?? And you had to slip the ends through the little hook things? OR use safety pins???

 

EWWWWWWW!!!!!!

[lszu]

Lois - Don't laugh, but I always wanted saddle shoes. I have no idea why, I just thought they were kind of cool.

 

I was in HS in the '80s and have somewhat fond memories of all the weird '80s fashions: pumps with ankle socks, bright colors (including da-glo), parachute pants (I still have my parachute jacket).

 

I think the thing I miss most were my high-top Converse All-Star sneakers. It was cool to have two pairs in different colors and wear one of each. I had a pair that were red, purple, green, and orange and had pins from my favorite bands all over them. Also cool was big rhinestone jewelry and rubber bracelets (ala Madonna).

 

Ah, those were the days.

[lka1012]

When I see kids with their wacky fashions and hair styles today, I want to go up to them and tell them to enjoy these times (and fashions) while the can. Because these times (and styles) won't last. So have fun now and make those fond memories that we now.

[kitty9]

Anne, yes, I had the madras outfits and the little velvet bows for the hair. You guys are all bringing up such great memories. I remember every year mom would save up some money and would buy me one Bobbie Brooks outfit. BB was huge when I was in high school.

 

Anyone remember tent dresses? I had a McCall's pattern for one and I made them in just about every color, print and fabric.

 

My best friend in high school loved wearing hiphugger skirts and poor boy sweaters to our CYO dances. Those skirts barely covered her hiney. She wore a little longer ones for school, but she had the most demerits of any girl because of her short skirts.

[Lois R]

its funny.....we are all showing our age differences:D ...lszu....I was raised on keds.....and If I was lucky Mom let me get a pair of PF Flyers.....;) and you are a converse high top gal LOL.......

 

Oh...you can have my saddle shoes too;) . You were a youngster in the 80s.....I was already in my 20s:eek: ...lszu..what year did you graduate HS?

I am a Bicentennial graduate:D ....1976!

[bythehex]

I remember the 70's - wearing my shiny Danskin outfit with the wrap around skirt, scarf knotted around my neck, and of course my platform Candies slides. And don't forget the Farrah Fawcett hairdo!! This was my typical disco outfit; it had a nice flow as we danced The Hustle.

Back in the day when I weighed a bit less than I do today...ahem...I remember wearing tube tops (with the prerequisite scarf around my neck) and those shiny spandex pants. Remember Olivia Newton John at the end of Grease?? I guess I thought I was something back then. LOL!!

Sharon H.

[ajpack]

Oh yes.....I remember the tent dresses. I made them in every color and for the summer made them in big Hawaiian prints! Now I couldn't even thread a sewing machine!

 

I remember when we wore nylons to school---they always got runners from the school desks. I paid $1 a pair back then. In the winter it was knee socks and weejuns. We couldn't wear pants to school back then---it was skirts or dresses every day. It was a big day when pantihose came out.

 

Anne

[gymbrat33]

I'm 33 now, and I remember the super tight Jordache, Gloria Vanderbuilt, and Sergio Valente Jeans. The super tight mini skirts. (The guys in my high school got so mad one day because we were allowed to wear those short mini skirts and they weren't allowed to wear long bermuda shorts, so one day they asked us to let us borrow our mini skirts and they wore them to school the next day. They looked super funny and the local news stations came to our school to film them.) The black tights with long shirts. Denim skirts and denim backless dresses.

[dosi]

Baretraps sandals and dittos jeans....and tight tshirts with a big rainbow. And clingy Qiana dresses and shirts with photo type pictures on them. Oh yeah I sure looked hot back in the day :rolleyes: :p .

[PiperMcB]

I was in Jr High and High School in the fifty's and early 60's. We wore lots of petticoats under our skirts or wore a "tight" skirt. A lot of dresses had "drop waists" before they flared out. Our "formals" had hoops. One of mine had so many ruffles going down the floor length skirt that I had to wear 7 graduated hoops on two hoop skirts to keep it from collapsing (It was 18 feet in circumference around the bottom--I measured it when I converted the overskirt with all the ruffles to a bassinet skirt for my daughter!)

[madelinerose]

I remember the heavy, navy blue gabardine jumper with the Peter Pan collared, short sleeve white blouse, white anklets and saddle shoes - that was my elementary school uniform. ugh!

 

Scotchgrain penny loafers with old pennies. If you had new pennies in your shoes, you were weird. What was that all about?

 

Tent dresses - LOL!!! :eek:

 

I remember the first time I wore "stockings", a garter belt and "cha-cha" heels (remember them?) OMG! I think I was 12. It was Easter at my grandmother's and I thought I was just too cool. My legs were so skinny and the nylons bagged around my knees and ankles so much, I kept pulling pull them up all day long until they were nothing but holes! But, hey, I was still cool!

 

Then, I was trying to walk down the stairs in the black patent leather "cha-cha" (kitten heels now) heeled shoes with the huge pilgrim buckle and lost my balance and fell all the way down. I was fine, just embarrassed :o, and then I had even MORE holes in the nylons! :eek: I must have been just absolutely LOVELY that day. OH, and I was wearing some yellow, frilly dress with flowers! Phew! Just the thought of that outfit is enough to make me scream - LOL! ROFL!

 

Oh, and I DO remember those belt things. What a disaster :D !

 

Ah, the platform Candies in all the colors, the Farrah do and the Hustle - hahaha!! Couldn't wear the tube tops, because I never had enough to hold them up! :D

 

But, I DID wear those velvet clip bows right at the top of my little bangs!!!

 

Great thread!

 

It's 6AM and I'm laughing hysterically! DH thinks I'm nuts!

[madelinerose]

My Ben Casey shirt had some kind of design or something on the Nehru collar - LOL! I loved Dr. Kildaire.

 

Yes, I remember the nuns and the rule about the uniform having to touch the floor when you knelt. I also remember a nun calling me a tramp (she'd be sued or punched out now) because you could see the reflection of my underwear in my patent leather shoes. She was insane, you could not!

 

Patent leather was huge - haha! I had several pairs.

 

Can't laugh anymore.....I hurt....gotta go.

[iowagirl411]

You guys are killing me. I didn't want to remember most of this stuff!

 

I had to hide my graduation picture. My kids would roll on the floor laughing at the poofy hair with the bow.

 

The mini skirts! The baggy hose with all the runs! Sack dresses and tent dresses! We must have looked awful!

 

My dad wouldn't let me have go-go boots and I was sure my life was ruined.

 

Worst of all for me was the long-line panty girdle. I must have weighed at least 90 lbs. then. (about as big around as one of my legs now) What in the world made me think I wasn't fashionably dressed without it!?!

 

Too funny!

[bythehex]

I remember my sister and her friends wearing the Ben Casey shirts. Here's a true story - my sister is 10 years older than me, and when she was a young teen in the early 60's Dr. Kildare/Richard Chamberlin was hot. He was in some movie and was going to be appearing live at the theater to sign autographs. My sister and her best friends were in their glories - until my mother told my sister that they HAD to take me with them. I was about 4 years old, and the last thing my sister wanted to do was babysit for me, but she grudgingly agreed. At the end of the movie, there he was on stage. He sang a song, and then they set up a table and had people file by one at a time so he could sign autographs.

Apparently when it was my sister's turn and she walked up with me, he thought I was cute. Instead of paying attention to HER, he picked me up onto his lap and talked to me, and when it was time to leave me gave ME a hug and kiss. Although I have no memories of this at all, my sister and her friends, to this day, remind me of how I got all the attention from Dr. Kildare!! LOL!

My sister has since forgiven me!:)

Sharon H.

[DollyCruise]

Weren't those dropped waist dresses called chemise? Remember that song, "no chemise please, oh not for me".

Putting your hair up in a french twist with "grecian curls" all up top.

When I didn't feel like doing that, I fretted for an hour in the morning trying to decide......flip or pageboy? Pageboy or flip? Major decision!!!

Whatever they were wearing on "American Bandstand", that's what I spent my baby sitting money on....LOL. And Annette Funicello was my idol!!!!

Also had those Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey blouses. I was too cool.

Did you have a "twist blouse", all the ruffles down the front would move around when we did the twist.

I had those shoe skates, went to the rink on Saturday with my pompoms matching my "skating skirt". either there or the movies, for 35 cents!

 

Dolly