I was putting up some of my heaviest winter clothes, and digging out my lighter-weight clothes when I got the itch to dig around in this suitcase of clothes I’ve saved for sentimental reasons. Either the garment had some significance, or it was a style I felt would one day be utterly representative of the era–(see my old pair of JNCO baggies with the red velvet stripe up the outside of the leg).
So, in the midst of a somewhat musty trip down memory lane, I found…ta-daaaaah! My first ever Grown Up Dress, bought for the occasion of my aunt Debbie and uncle Danny’s wedding in 1990, when I was 13. In fact, I posted about one of those preparatory shopping adventures way back when.
So, I was 13, and determined that I’d be double-dog-damned if I would wear another floral-printed cotton dress with a flounce around the hem of the skirt and some lace up on the bodice. Those dresses were fine for little kids but I was a teenager now, so I didn’t want to look too childish, you know.
Example 1″, Example 2, Example 3. These aren’t dresses that I ever personally wore, but they’re pretty representative of what was the going style of girls’ dresses in the 1980s and early 1990s, and an excellend representation of what the 13-year-old me absolutely did not want.
The main difficulties, however, lay in the fact that I didn’t really know for sure what I wanted, except “not that,” and also that, at age 13, I was pretty shrimpy, and as we would come to find out, too small for most things in the Junior Miss range, or else the styles were decidedly inappropriate for a wedding or for a 13-year-old.
Eventually, this is what I ended up with…my first ever grown-up dress, and nostalgia notwithstanding, I still think it was a pretty damn stylish outfit. Probably a lot too grown and sophisticated for a 13-year-old, but I think it set a good precedent. I could have done a lot worse by myself at that age. See my old black glasses for reference! Also, please ignore my freshman prom dress…it was a lapse in taste facilitated by the lack of selection for young ladies with 31″ busts.
I’m hoping the style of my first grown-up dress comes back in someday, because that is one of the most flattering looks for my non-curvaceous figure. It helpfully fakes out those elements I’m kind of lacking. Of course my old dress is way too small for me (I had to kind of stretch it to get it on my dummy) but I could easily copy that if I ever needed to.
As you can see, this top has a similar silhouette. I either wear it with a black skirt or black or grey trousers. It kind of references the old-school Christian Dior “New Look” style, which I have admired since I was a kid. Very elegant, I think.