What if?

[Deidre Taylor]

I have had a lot of time on my hands over the past 9 months and have done a lot of reminiscing and looking back. In a way I was more fortunate than many in my mother and sisters accepted me at a younger age and lived through many of the fashions of yesteryear. From reading many of the posts here the age range is vast and we have come at different times of our lives.

All this has gotten me to thinking. Whatg if you had been born as a female and lived your life as one. Looking back what is the one fad, rage, or fashion trend are you most sad you were not able to live through and wear? Conversely what fashions would you look back and say did I really wear that? It would be helpful for all of us to understand if you give your approximate age so we can see how different generations see things.

Yes I will respond to these after a few others have so i don't taint any of the answers.

[CharLee]

For me growing up in the 50's & 60's the one thing I would have loved to wear would have been a flair skirt or dress with a crinolin, girdle & stockings. Guess that's why when I dress now I still wear a girdle & stockings even though I don't really need a girdle.

The one fashion I would never want to see return is the sack dress ...... UUUUGGGGGHHHH !!!!

[Emily]

OMG... the 80's!!!

I would have loved to rock the 80's fashions! I think I would have been a 1983-Madonna clone, or a 1986-Stacie Q clone (which is essentially what Stacie Q was - a direct Madonna wannabe, but still.. you gotta love that big, crimped hair and the hundred jelly bracelets!!)

[Heather W]

I am 36 so I have not lived through as many of the fashions many of you have. There are a lot of things that come to mind but tough to narrow it to one look, let me think.

If there is a look I am probably most sad I missed out on would be the power suits women used to wear. I can remember my Mother getting ready for work in her skirted suit complete in many cases with matching pumps. Those skirted suits were so feminine yet showed they belonged in the business world.

Staying in the 1990s I would have to say I would have never worn the grunge look back then. I was never into the music back then although my sister was I remember Melissa dressing like that once and catching holy hell from Mom about that is not how a young lady dresses. That was the first and Last time she ever dressed like that. So you can see even if I were into the look I would have never have been allowed to dress like that.

[DonnaT]

In the 60's & 70's there was the combination of hot pants and white go-go boots.

Not too sad about it however, as I did get to wear the combination once I married and my wife let me wear hers.

[Diana Michelle]

In the 60's & 70's there was the combination of hot pants and white go-go boots.

I have to agree with Donna but I will expand it to the whole era including mini skirts and the absoultely adorable sizzler dresses. It was a time of the first real youth movement and when they made their own mark on fashion as opposed to look like Mini Me's of their parents. I remember sitting in high school and college and daydreaming it was me in those outfits.

As for staying dead the foundation garments of the 1950's and early 60's. Like many girls my age I tried them and the extra firm girdles and bullet bras and for me the romance of them died after a couple of hours of being squeezed and contorted into a shape. Sorry CharLee. Yes many women today have shapewear of varying degrees of firmness and design in their drawers and wear them however they are far more comfortable than those boned contraptions of yesterday.

[Anne Bonny]

Well, I am 60 so by the time I became truly aware we were in the early 1960's. Early 60's I had a sister who participated in many beauty pageants with the rhinestone Tiaras laying about to come across on occasion with the combs to dig into the hair and the bobby pins to hold them in place. Early 60's dresses and skirts and tops were longer and as the decade progressed women were wearing jeans and shorts, and the classic dresses and mini skirts of the era came along and they lasted into the late 70's as hot pants appeared. Then came the 80's and on up.

Had I been born a girl all I can say is that I would have dressed and worn the same clothes my sisters wore. Being a boy with two sisters and a mother and a father who was at work or who spent a year in Vietnam....I was immersed in all the mysterious undergarments and clothes...and I found myself. This is when I began to experiment back in the late 60's at age 9 or 10! I was immersed and I was a very shy over protected (because of my asthma) boy. Terrible acne from early steroids as the search to improve treatments came along...Gaw that hurt me...I was really rejected a lot I felt I was not able to excel at active sports because of my asthma, I was shy and closed in and felt bad about myself. Who knows ... I cannot say these things made me who I am inside...but I do think they enabled who I was to emerge though I kept it a deep dark secret as I came to admire and to desire.

Looking back I think the silly things were skirts so short I remember girls constantly pulling the hems down so they were not flashing the crotch of their panties! Platform shoes...Wide headbands and wild colors and enormous ear rings that today would be iconic of the era...while being thought of as rather tacky...gee like orange plaid pants and gatsby shoes and long sideburns...yuck yuck yucko!!!! Oh! what about the girls in short shorts with suspenders that was a pretty awful fashion trend or was it kind of a short short overall kind of affair? hum...

[Deidre Taylor]

Love all the answers here and so many bring back a lot of memories. I was caught so many times and finally accepted by my mother and sisters that I was fortunate to have experienced many of the fashions and the sensations and looks achieved from them.

I guess if I were to have a favorite fashion era it would be the late 70's and early 80's as it was when I blossomed and came into the light front and center. They were so soft and feminine and thinking back in many ways all the ruffles and lace IMO made it easy to tell the boys from the girls. One of my favorite looks of those times was slit skirts. So sexy yet in a way so demure. Only show as much as you wanted or needed to.

On that same note I would have to say some of the disco fashions of that era should have never seen the light of day and hopefully stay dead and buried. Some of the dresses were OK but some of the fashions like the spandex jeans, the metallic look tube tops, Daisy Dukes with knee socks, and those skyscraper platform heels were not practical or IMO appropriate for anywhere outside of the bedroom.

[Lacey Hadley]

The 80's all the way. Ladies fashions from clothes, to shoes/boots, to hair (OMG THE HAIR ) and makeup, makes the 80's that decade of a young cder's love 'n lust to want to wear such clothes, footwear, hair and makeup to be just be so feminine. Women dressed so beautiful and feminine, but also confidently and sexy through most of the 80's.

As to fashions I want to see buried forever, the super chunky heeled platform shoes and boots of the 1970's especially those with ugly squared off toe boxes. I never found those types of shoes and boots to be pretty, stylish or feminine.

[Martha G]

I would like to go back to the miniskirt age.

I have nice looking legs and have perfected a nice woman's walk.

[Bernice]

I'm 64.

If I could have worn anything, I think I'd have preferred the classic schoolgirl white blouse and pleated plaid skirts, and penny loafers or Mary Jane shoes. If I outgrew that fashion, I'd have opted for pleated shirtdresses, or perhaps uniform (Princess seamed) dresses, or tiered ruffled peasant dresses.

I'd have never gone for the one piece pantsuit, or Tunic and pants. Culottes, maybe, but never Capri pants or spandex.

Hugs,

Bernice

[Denice]

I'm 53, and lived through the Disco era. Now I'm thinking it would have been fun wearing a cute dress and nice heels to go dancing. Which is odd because back then I hated Disco. Now I appreciate it. It was the perfect remedy for those times.

[Noeleena]

Hi
born 11 aug 1947. age 70 now. well some what over .

Fashions . from then to now I really had no interest in mens or womens I just did not like clothes more so mens.

Had I known my Tartan and our clan = Scottish I would have worn my Kilt colours , of cause all about our some of family members was keep from me.

my main background being Prussian now you,ll have my interest going back to 1200. of cause our garb was a mix and different so really as we had more fabric and we became more intune with our style and over the last few years I have got more info and do German style and try to do our Prussian side,

Of cause this part of my history was with held from me as you,ll note being born so close to the end of WW 2 , we were classed as German. plus my Prussian and German names, so basic I was told be quiet,

so the clothes I design and sew/ make I,m more than happy wearing them
in the mundane world yea well okay still make and sew plus I don't follow fashion do my own thing and get lovely comments on my own style.


Mein Stil ist mehr úber mich und meinen Hintergrund,=
my style is more about myself and my background

...noeleené...

[Annie]

Not that I am interested in wearing all the foundation "gear" but I always thought that Barbara Billingsley, Jane Wyatt and Donna Reed were most elegant (Maybe too much so?) during the late 50's and early 60's.
Then there were Charlie's Angels. I always thought that would be pretty to wear. Not so sure about the hair though.
Maybe more like Joan Collins and Linda Evans in Dynasty in the early 80's?

[Anne Bonny]

Hum, I'm 61...just a fact presently. I am not sorry I missed the platform shoe period of the early 70's. Some of the colors of the 60's and styles would not work today. Classic dresses of the 50's were very pretty and feminine but I was an infant so that era was before my time still I think as a fashion I am sorry to have missed that period as women tended to wear dresses and skirts much more...if they could be brought into the present day that would be fine I would not wish to live in the distant past because of the progress being made in medical sciences.