My Current Vintage Obsession

My personal style could never be described as “Jackie O”.  My hair tends to look windblown at best, and my dressy clothes are, these days, gathering dust in my closet.   Park days, piano lessons, gymnastics lessons, and speech therapy sessions don’t usually demand pumps and a slip.  More likely, you’ll see me in jeans or yoga pants with some oversized shirt.  Glamorous!   My mother is tall with narrow shoulders and a slim face and wears the styles I never could–full skirts, fussy tops, vests.   She could never understand  why her 5’1″ daughter with the big, full face and broad shoulders couldn’t float through the room in a circle skirt like June Cleaver.   Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to tolerate the clothes I wanted to wear–empire waist dresses, wrap sweaters, and straight skirts.  There was a compromise here and there, but she could be a bit of a bully about it all.  The one thing she couldn’t stand was the one thing she could do nothing about–my hair.  She would have loved it had I adopted a Grace Kelly do, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  Classic good looks were NOT mine, and my style, though stifled for many years directly by my well-meaning mother and even after by my desire to please her as an adult, was actually more boho.  You could read in her eyes the one thing she was thinking but wouldn’t say–TACKY!

So, at this stage of the game, why am I obsessed with 60s suits?   (I’m a 70s girl!) Is it the desperate need to  break out of my rut?  Could the yoga pants and oversized t-shirts of my husband’s finally have caused some sort of meltdown?  Am I secretly planning to shock the yoga pants off everyone else?  Am I just missing my mom and wanting to please her?

One extremely appealing characteristic of these suits is how streamlined they are.   Not many bells and whistles here.  The extravagance would be in the choice of fabric and in lining.  No embroidery, no ruffles, no crochet and NO SHOULDER PADS!  I used to rip them out of my clothes, even in the 80s.  Those of us with broad shoulders don’t need them!  Never did!

Something else has me hypnotized, though.  When one lays off the distracting embellishments, one gives oneself the opportunity to LAY ON THE JEWELRY!!!!  Back up, people!  I’ll need some room for the next post!