When someone learns that I have some retro clothing in my possession, the question always arises: “Why do you keep those old clothes?”
The answer has always been related to weight and width, and the distinct possibility that one day in the far future, both weight and width would diminish so those clothes would fit me again. Hope, I was always told, springs eternal. I am still hoping.
Today the response might have more to do with being unwilling to part with clothing that I am learning might have some value far beyond the initial price tag. And while I might not be able to wear them again, someone who watches television might decide that shopping in my closet would be more rewarding than a visit to the nearest big box outlet.
I cannot recall the company the TV commercial was representing, but the visual caught my eye. There was a young woman wearing a lovely sweater, with the first view of the sweater’s design from the front. Then she turned around and showed that the sweater was buttoned in the back, giving an entirely different idea of the sweater’s versatility.
I sat up straight in the chair and announced to Housemate that fashion had come full circle, that what some consider out of style is really in style in today’s clothing world.
He looked at me with a puzzled expression until I explained that as a teenager I too had sweaters that could be worn just like the one the model was being paid to wear.
Back in my teenage years, the girls’ dresser drawers were filled with what were called “sweater sets.” These sets included one short-sleeved pull-over, accompanied by a more traditional sweater with button closings. They were usually worn together with skirts, or occasionally with slacks.
A glance online now calls these particular pairings, “vintage sweater sets,” a polite way of calling them “old.” They may be old but they are new again and I wonder how we teens knew how to wear them to the best advantage, a trend once again being featured on TV as though 60 years ago didn’t exist.
I explained more fully to Housemate that we sometimes discarded the pullover in favour of just wearing the sweater. But we didn’t button it down the front. Instead we buttoned the sweater, turned it around so the back was in the front then yanked our head and arms through the appropriate holes.
Our demure front-buttoned sweater now became an entirely new fashion, designed with one thing in mind: proving that we teen girls had bosoms that no longer needed a training undergarment.
Of course some of the girls had more prominent bosoms and the reason for the backward sweater was readily apparent.
I was not one of those girls. My sweater was baggy whether worn with buttons in back or front. But not to be left out, I continued to wear buttons at the back, again with hope always present.
Eventually those sweater sets went out of fashion and the trend moved on to over-blouses worn with bell-bottomed trousers, featuring gobs of extra fabric so the hems swished as we walked. Of course I had to secure the waist with a safety pin to keep the pants in place — I had no hips and still no bosom of note.
I know my pink bell bottom outfit definitely won’t need a safety pin, but one of these days I might try turning a sweater around with buttons in the back to see if the state of my bosom has improved. Hope still exists.
Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
