Been There, Done That

The modern mother of a certain age might find herself feeling a sense of déjà vu when shopping for clothes these days. She may see oversized sweaters with dropped shoulders, cowboy boots, short skirts with tiers of ruffles, puffed sleeves, neon colors, sperry topsiders, stirrup pants? 

She may have ignored all the warning signs of the 80’s resurgence that began a few years ago. She may even be firmly in favor of updating her style, but what if changing with the times means changing back, and changing back to something she might rather forget?  When confronted with clothing so reminiscent of her more awkward though admittedly younger self, she may respond, “been there; done that; not doing it again.”  

Improving with age “like a fine wine,” is a tired cliché, but perhaps, the modern mother can imagine that she has, in fact, improved: more confident, more put together, secure in her own personal style. And so, she can hold her head high, and pick and chose which (if any) 80’s styles to add to her repertoire, imagining that she wears all things better now than she did back then, if only because she is more experienced and does not feel compelled to dress identically to her two best friends. 


* images from current offerings at The Gap, Anthropologie, and The Gap, respectively, but the 80's resurgence abounds elsewhere too. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I REFUSE to revisit the 80's: the permed hair, the Esprit outfits, the white keds. But darn it, I'm quite confident I would still like mighty fine in some black stirrup pants. And I think I might just still have a pair in my mom's attic!

EHP said...

I say go for it. You do indeed sound like you have the confidence to pull it off, and it is pretty doubtful that all of your friends will also be donning stirrups pants. But then again, you could start a trend.

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