Loving Clothes: The Early Years

My very first day at school was somewhat accidental, with none of the preparation and anticipation most children experience. When I was four, I visited the school I was to attend but my father received a promotion and we moved (which meant I never got to play in the toy box that charmed me during that visit). Shortly afterwards, my mother took me with her to what would be my primary school to inquire about future enrollment. I started that day. My first memory was of a group of students dressed so alike I assumed there was a uniform--all the girls seemed to wear yellow turtlenecks and red and yellow plaid kilts. I can't remember what I was wearing but the nearly five year old me felt that they were badly dressed. I can't remember even seeing any boys as I stood in front of the class but they must have been there.

I could already read by this point, so that may have been a factor in the pleasure I took from looking at the pictures in the Ladybird books used in class. As I'd already been reading for over 2 years, these picture books were far too easy for me, but there was nothing else around. My two favorites were Cinderella, who had not one but three gowns for the three balls she attended. The first dress was pink lace, the second a deep royal blue satin with white lace and red ribbon trim. The final, and supposedly climactic gown was the only letdown--a fairly pretty but unremarkable white lace with golden embellishments (not unlike Michelle Obama's inauguration evening dress, now I think of it). I spent way too much time thinking about whether the pink or blue dress was better, and why the artist couldn't have gone the extra mile for dress three. I looked at all three and tried to understand the details, hierarchies of the dresses and admiring the genius of combining the deep royal blue satin with white and red trimmings.

Cinderella's clothing represented one kind of clothing--categorically something a five year old could not wear. But the rest of the Ladybird books, with their somewhat dated illustrations (this was the 1970s, the books were probably illustrated in the late 50s-early 60s) offered more wardrobe inspiration for this little girl. One book particularly grabbed me. A very easy read, The Party, was the tale of some little girls (and probably boys) getting ready to go to a party. Each girl wore satin Mary Janes that matched their short frilly dresses, all in different pastel and light jewel tones. Nobody I knew dressed like that for parties, probably because it was a different era, and maybe because nobody ever did, but these images shaped my ideal party attire.

I was always a girl who loved my clothes (which is why it is so odd I don't remember what I wore to that first day in school). I wore my red wellington boots to bed one night when I was two--they were new, I wasn't going to take them off. I still remember favorite dresses, the best being the blue satin party dress with intricate fastenings that my grandmother made out of the dress my aunt wore as a bridesmaid to my parents' wedding. A former tailor and jeweler who loved clothing, Nanna made me the best, somewhat dated--in a good sense--outfits: 1940s and 1950s influenced playsuits (aka rompers) and that pale blue dress which was the nearest thing I'd ever get to a dress out of The Party.

Years later, my friend Alyssa mentioned that very Cinderella book and how much she loved it--she grew up up in Long Island, so it was strange such very English books were used there. Like me, she thought the white dress was a letdown and was torn between the pink and the blue. When I was home at Christmas, I thought I'd look for copies of Cinderella for both of us. It turns out it is a collectible, along with all the Ladybird books of that series and goes for over $100 in good condition. Scanning the collector websites, I discovered that the book with the party dresses was called The Party. It's not so collectible and one day I hope I can get it. In the meantime, I'm sharing some of the illustrations, none of them as luminous as in the books (the blue dress is particularly washed out). But if you ever see the Ladybird books from this era that circulated into the 1970s, check out the fashion.