Please Don’t Come Back
Oh not you. I love all you little clickers.
No, it’s certain styles whose return I fear.
This weekend, I was rummaging through a drawer and found this:
I don’t remember the exact circumstances for this workplace photo, but I know it was taken about 1977 – when I was twenty-six.
I have infallible, exquisite taste. But I am thinking now that my impeccable sense of style must have developed sometime after 1977.
I loved this suit. It was a soft moss green. The intricately patterned (‘intricately’ being a synonym here for ‘insane’) polyester blouse with the big floppy bow was green, ivory, pink and…wait for it…purple.
Yes, the suit is short-sleeved. With a long-sleeved blouse. It was also belted safari-style.
I LOVED this suit.
Now the only thing I love about the suit is that it was a size six.
And in case the suit and weird shirt were not enough, check out those GLASSES!
I didn’t wear contacts in 1977. Now I only take them out when I sleep… (or for a colonoscopy).
These glasses are the OPPOSITE of contact lenses. It’s as if I needed focal correction for my eyebrows and forehead and cheeks too.
And because they were gigantic, and I’m very nearsighted, they were THICK. And HEAVY.
When I put them on my bedside stand at night, I needed ballast on the other side.
The bridge of my nose and the tops of my ears were always sore. Think ‘nose callous’.
And I am not even going to discuss the perm.
Fashion is cyclical.
This look may come back.
But it could be worse.
Seven years after my stupid suit…
I was into….
SHOULDER PADS!
Fashion is cyclical.
Be very afraid.
239 Comments
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notquiteold 
Time is a bitch! Congratulate yourself that you’re not the worst, not by a long way. The trendier you are at the time, the more dated you look later. Fashion really is a game for fools.
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“the trendier you are – the more dated you look” – How I wish someone had told me that in the 70s and 80s. (Oh, and in the 60s and 90s too)
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A fool and his money are easily parted: fashion is the mechanism. Serviceable, quality clothes cannot be worn because they’re “last season”. It’s easy to see who gets rich on that mode of thinking.
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🙂 My mom always told me not to be trendy just for that reason, but I’d wear your soft moss green suit all day long…today!
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Haha booksfromthelaundryroom! My mom warned me, too. She was a victim of shoulder pads and “pouffy” bangs. Therefore, some of my senior pictures were shot in jeans and a plain white t-shirt, with the bottom part of the jeans cropped out (just in case slightly flared jeans became outdated). I won’t even mention some of the other outfits –and it was only 6 years ago!
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Come to date wealthy,beautiful singles. best wishes to you!
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Actually, I loved the shoulder pad era. However, is that a mullet you are sporting? Wow!
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Yeah, it was a mullet. Permed too.
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We were eyeglass twins! I have a picture of me wearing a pair identical to those. And yes, I’m with you on the contacts – only come out when I sleep. (I didn’t have to remove mine for my colonscopy!)
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Don’t rub it in!
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We’ve all been there, we’re just not all brave enough to go back and look at the old photos!
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HILARIOUS! Thank you so much for showing that photo. It feels so good to know I wasn’t alone with those fashions and perms (when I think of the hours I spent each month in the salon chair!!). You write like Nora Ephron with extra genius and brilliance.
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Did you read “I Feel Bad About My Neck”?? Hilarious! I’m delighted that you would even think to compare me to Ephron! Thanks!
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great story
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Fortunately, there are no surviving photos here… 🙂 Not that evidence was destroyed, there never was any. However, I do remember back that far and no doubt you were in style!
We could turn the clock back further, can anyone say Bell Bottoms? LOL
Léa
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You are as cute as a button in that photo!
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A weirdly dressed button.
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EEEEEEEE! Congrats!
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The glasses are coming back. I am starting to see them on my undergrads (remember, these are NYC undergrads). I actually like them far more than those heavy ugly square black glasses that are just fading from popularity now. The big 80’s glasses make everyone look like an owl, but that is kind of cute.
My worst glasses were sky blue kitty-corner glasses, when I was 3. With fake rhinestones yet. The horror.
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That’s what I was thinking, they *are* kinda back already! The over-sized sunglasses come in all shapes now. And the prescription glasses, some of them wear them for the dark, thick-framed trend now. It’s kind of cute on the right face but I’m sure in 30 years people will look back on old photos with a bit of “what the hell was I wearing” nostalgia. 🙂
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I remember both those fashion trends. You would have been a fashion maven. The shoulder pad phase was a nightmare for me. I cut them out of every outfit I bought. I hated them!
Do you remember the spiral perm phase? In my wedding photos not only am I sporting one but so is everyone else. We had a giant “family” photo taken and 24 of the 27 people in it had a spiral perm. My parents were two and I can’t remember who the other brave soul was. Crazy!
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You may have cut them out… I ADDED them. I had them on velcro and I wore them with T-Shirts! NO SHIT!
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You cracked me up! 🙂
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Here’s the sad thing. I still have those glasses and my grandkids weare them when they are taking funny photos. (Even sadder? I still like them when I am hiding from the world, but they are crooked on my face now.)
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My niece once asked if I had any of my old clothes she could wear for HALLOWEEN! Ouch!
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Oh, do I remember the huge round glasses. (shudder) I wore them too, and you may have just triggered a post-traumatic stress episode. I have noticed, with some foreboding, that glasses ARE getting bigger, as Bonnie said. I’m hoping they will not get AS big.
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And I hope that lens material has changed so that they are lighter…. they were an awfully heavy deadweight on your nose and ears.
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I’ve already worked out a lot of my retro-angst, because all the 70’s looks were back in the 00’s, including bell bottoms. I was in junior high at the height of the first bell bottom phase, and I never ever wanted to revisit that. So I did not buy a single pair of jeans between 2002 and 2007, when skinny jeans reappeared. I don’t buy ultra-skinny jeans, but bell bottoms make me feel like I am 13 again, an age that no one wants to revisit!
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Yeah… that’s the age difference between us. I was in my “hippie woodstock” years during the bell bottom era… and I LOVE that look – probably because I am nostalgic for that time.
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I loved the shoulder pads also…had a hard time giving them up! I, however, was the one who WANTED those glasses…damn that perfect 20:20 vision!
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NOBODY developed any fashion sense until after 1977. Despite all that, the picture is really rather adorable. Speaking of fashion being cyclical…. http://wigginswordsandimages.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/mrs-basores-fashion-barrel-or/
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I wish I had grown up next to Mrs. Basore!
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I think you look fabulous. Trendy and Tres Chic!
Like you, loved shoulder pads (probably for different reasons though).
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Well, I had another reason too… I used an extra set (spare, I mean, not extra-large) to pad my bra.
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Mine was just the opposite, my shoulders are so narrow in comparison to my overly large .. well you know … the padded shoulders made me finally look proportionate.
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I see the suit and my automatic interpretation is that your arms are covered with tattoos. I had to look closely to see that it was a blouse.My attention was a bit distracted by the scarf.
I will have to opt out of any style that involves shoulder pads. I look like a football player anyway.
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Great! Congratulations!
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Hahaha. Shoulder pads came back but didn’t click as much. No wonder 🙂
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In the early 80s, I bought a navy suit with small white polka dots. I never got rid of it because it kept coming back in. One day while I was working in Switzerland, I got a Talbot’s catalog in the mail. You guessed it, on the cover was my 20 year old suit, which I happened to be wearing at the time. I am tres fashionable. Or I was once. One day.
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I bet that look could TOTALLY be pulled off here in NYC, glasses included.
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Haha…I think we all have a photo like that, somewhere.
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Love the Harry Potter glasses (maybe you were way ahead of the curve). I remember how heavy those glasses used to be, I’m very nearsighted and my glasses were like Coke bottles. Thank heavens for multi-focal contacts and lightweight plastic lenses for glasses. I will beware the shoulder pads! Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
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Yes, fashion is cyclical… and much of what you are wearing in that first photo has come back. Honestly, I love the suit you wearing (I can’t see the bottom of it, but the top looks pretty cool). I wouldn’t wear that long top inside of it, but it looks great with that scarf. In addition, I see sooooooo many people wearing those type of glasses. When I was younger I used to hate thick rimmed frames, but these days they have come back with a vengeance. Actually, that old photo of you is more fashion forward than you think.
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Been there, done that! Obviously we’re very close in age. Thanks for the laugh!
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People wearing that now would be considered trendy (?)
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I remember wearing green jeans in the 90s, thinking I looked cool. I looked like a tit. Great blog by the way, congrats on being freshly pressed!
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Green Jeans are in again. Coloured jeans, anyways, Brightly coloured jeans…..i think….
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That look, the safari jacket/suit with the bow-tied blouse, is totally back in fashion right now! Yes, fashion is cyclical. As long as acid-washed jeans don’t make it back… oh wait, spoke too soon. 🙂
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Congrats – FP’d!!! Love the picture – the glasses especially.
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I love this! And–I’m very AFRAID! Congrats on Freshly Pressed!
Hugs,
Kathy
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Those glasses actually kinds look very cute to me . “It’s as if I needed focal correction for my eyebrows and forehead and cheeks too.” – Hilarious 🙂 🙂
Congrats on freshly pressed 🙂
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Perhaps I am a traitor to my generation but I really cannot wait for what today’s hipsters with their skin tight skinny jeans, will think of todays fashion in 25 years. Lol
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Fashion is fashionable when it’s in fashion. And then it’s not. Don’t take it personally. If Princess Diana were alive today, even she would look back at her old fashionable frocks and say, “Blimey, what was I thinking?”
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This was fun to read… though I fear the day shoulder pads return.
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Aw, I actually didn’t think 70s fashion was all that bad – it had this look to it of funky and free and “do what you want”. And hey, it could be worse. We could be invaded by the 80s again. Gods. No wonder people were wearing their sunglasses at night.
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I would have to agree… the eighties were worse. I won’t even post a photo of me from that era.
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Leisure suits were my disdain back in the ’70s. Prayin’ we never see those again! 🙂
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Oh the joys of fashion and all the potential “embarrassing photos”. Loved the pictures, poster child for the 70s!
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Funny, though I did see a makeover show actually use shoulder pads the other day.
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I crack up at my teenaged daughter who’s into 80s fashion, although half the time she doesn’t realize it’s 80s fashion; she thinks it’s new. Nothing new under the sun, dearies! And yes, all these looks will come back, but now we think the kids who wear them are unfortunate victims. When we wore them, we were hot!
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Nancy. I still have that outfit, but my curly hair is a giant afro the size of Cleveland. The glasses were a checkered black and white pattern and I only gave up shoulder pads two years ago when my adult children stole them and buried them somewhere to keep me from being seen in public looking like a linebacker. Sigh! As far as I was concerned, I was looking good and so were you. Thanks for bringing it all back so clearly with the delightful way you have of telling a story. All the best.
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You’re FP!!!!! YAY!!!!
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In the 70s,I had stick on decals for the lower corner of my huge glasses. One pair had a butterfly and the other tiny initials . Funny post!
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I never even heard of lens decals! You’ve made me feel better, because I now know that my photo could have been even WORSE!!
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I think I had the same suit! My daughter just got new glasses (most of the time she wears contacts) and I couldn’t believe she wanted “big glasses” It’s funny because when she looks at old pictures of us she thinks we look silly but here she is picking out the same style, well maybe not quite as big as ours were.
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You’ve been FP’d. Yay! Congrats!
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Hooray! Congrats, Nancy! Freshly Pressed so the world could see your ’70s chic style! I love that picture so much — so much that it’d make my nose callous hurt if I had one.
I have got to hold out hope that shoulder pads were not a useless fad. Surely we could all find a purpose for them again someday? Maybe move them around to the front and inside our bras? There, much better.
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Oh yeah, I did that. But I only used the “Cheers” size, not the “Dynasty” size.
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I love it. I like dressing in different styles on my blog. Just getting started, would love to dress like that.
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LOVE it!!!! And how right you are! I was born in the 70’s so only vaguely recollect the attire of the era first hand, and cringe when the family album is produced! I think then, you were looking a million dollars and yes, the size 6 figure sure helped lol! I get the feeling that the era of the 70’s was about experimenting in colours and fabrics. Stepping out of ‘the box’, as it were and being bold and daring. I suppose ‘flower power’ had a lot to do with that and from my own observations [scary photo albums etc] it’s like flowers were applied to EVERYthing then! It’s great to look back and have a giggle, but I won’t be giggling if that trend ever came back in the same force as it was then – I’d run for the hills haha! Great article, thanks for sharing!!
Amanda 🙂
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You kinda look like Annie Potts from Ghost Busters in that picture!
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Congrats on being Freshly Pressed! Hooray! 🙂
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This really made me LOL! I loved my perm, and I’d have it again if my sister in law (who’s also my hairdresser) would let me. Hated shoulder pads, cut them out of everything, but now that I’m developing my own ‘built in’ ones through exercise I quite like them! Going to have to read more of your blog ….. especially as I’m just behind you!!!!
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I love that photo!
I had so many shoulder pads in my outfits, I remember having to cut them out with scissors after the fad passed and I got tired of them. If that comes back, we are all doomed. Congrats on the FP!!!
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I love your “Scream” on your freshly pressed too! We are a couple of artists for sure!
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I don’t know about you, but I am shocked this post of mine was picked, absolutely floored.
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Oh yeah, Surprised! And WP had to pick the post with the awful horrible old photo of myself. I had to talk myself into even posting that pic. “Oh, only my few diehard readers will see it,” I told myself. Yikes.
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Haha! This post was one of the few I almost didn’t publish. But then, I thought, well, only my loyal blog readers will see it and they’ll get my humor and forgive my complete lack of drawing or photoshop skills.
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Funny!
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You were adorable in that photo. I won’t be posting any of myself from that era… Congrats on your freshly pressed!
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I love the fashion. All the style always come back.
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Wow. Yeah, it makes me glad I am not a fashion slave…less to regret later! 🙂
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Yeah! And those glasses have come back in fashion… as sunglasses! Lovely pic though…;o)
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You were awesome in 77! An enjoyable read, thanks.
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It could be a photo from 2012.
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you look adorable! great photo!
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This was very funny. I love the title of your blog. I always say that I must age with dignity but after reading your description, you are right, there is a little bit of resistance.
I am living in London now and I have to share that those obscenely large eye frames are definitely coming back. We should have saved our old frames.
I just started a blog on life in general also on wordpress. Come visit some time.
http://www.thelabyrinthguide.wordpress.com
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Really funny post – thanks for sharing the evidence 😉 Even though you’re looking back on it in horror now, the photo has a lot of charm in it, like a memory from a more innocent time. I like your current hairstyle btw, cool and sleek. Best wishes and congrats on getting FP.
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I think it is part of growing old (maybe the wise part, but maybe the vision part), but I like the way I look now better than the way I looked in my 20s. Thanks for stopping by.
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Oh my gosh I remember shoulder pads…. My wife use to wear everything with shoulder pads. She was a skinny little thing with these funny puffy shoulders the pointed outward. Who came up with that Idea? Ofcourse when you get old you start to see the same styles come around exactly as it was or variation of the like.
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When you first met her, did you think she was built that way?
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Who can forget shoulder pads! i LOVE this drawing! You do great art and I can’t wait to see the next one!
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Yay! FP’d. About time, I say. And to have that picture immortalized forever! Ah….the 70s…plaids and paisleys, sideburns as bushy as clown hair, disco. I prefer that to shoulder pads. Congrats! Congrats! Congrats!
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So here’s what’s weird:
A. You were born in the same year as my mom
B. When I saw that photo, I thought it was an old photo of my mom.
Does she have a twin I don’t know about?
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She has millions of twins. We all looked alike.
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OMG!, I loved your post soooo funny, i’m so glad you got “pressed” and I found your blog, I am now going to spend my evening reading all your blog 🙂
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I hope I make you laugh!
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Um, no comments about your hair. You are SO the hair girl now, but then…maybe not so much. 😉
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No kidding!
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Great blog. Thanks!
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Ha! I’m still hung up on the first picture – 26?! You look SO young!
And, um, Freshly Pressed!!!!!!!!!!! (Don’t let anyone fool you. That many exclamation points will ALWAYS be in style.) YAY NANCY!!!
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Hilarious!! I look at fashion today and I cringe at what’s “comming back” from what my parents use to wear or what I wore in the 80s. Since I still have a crappy job in retail I get to see it all. Lime green, pink or yellow clothes for summer and those horrible big glasses are back but in sunglasses form. 😦
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CONGRATULATIONS on being Freshly Pressed!!!! You are a wonder Nancy. I always knew it. I pick my friends carefully! By the way, you were a darned cute 26 and the outfit was cute too. 🙂
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All things change with the clock. My human is ten days older than dirt. The other day he was going through a box of old photos. He picked one out, looked at it intensely, mumbled “I know that rectal aperture from somewhere.” About that time his wife happened along, took a quick look and exclaimed, “You were having a bad hair day when that picture was shot.” He didn’t put the photo back in the box.
Sandy
http://www.sandysays1.wordpress.com
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I’m glad to have old photos of me in my high school rock band days, US Air Force days, Hippie hair and beard days to Disco days, and so on. Don’t live life flatline, especially when it comes to fashion…you’ll be old and virtually “invisible” soon enough…
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Like many women I know, you probably look younger now than you did then! And don’t worry, in 1977, my mum’s clothes were worse than yours….. My brother took over as her personal fashion consultant when he was about 14, and it’s been ok since!
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I believe the late 60s and early 70s were the absolute low point in the history of world fashion.
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I think the 80s are the worst! 😀
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the 80s are a close second I’m afraid.
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I would vote for the 80s.
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This is one of “the coolest” blogs I’ve ever seen !! 🙂
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you are funny 🙂 i remember no shoulder pads, no dates for me, i felt it was awkward not to have those, even bought the one you hang over your shoulder so whatever top you wear will be padded hahahaha… oh yeah, now it IS awkward… hope they never come back… haha…love your post.
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What a great look at time and trend. Thanks!
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde and commented:
Too cute!
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Thanks for the re-post!
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Great photo … I agree with Arsenica and Nazarioartpainting, ‘fashionable’ people will admire you and try and replicate your fabulous style today. Tomorrow that beautiful suit will be walking down the street toward you! 🙂
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As long as that girl isn’t wearing that blouse!
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I think you look smashing!!! It’s not the clothes which make the person but the person who makes the clothes. I think that at the time you were thus dressed and thought yourself quite fashionable not only you thought this but so did many others – others whom you didn’t even know (plus ones you did). They thought this because that is what you projected, put forth with your whole being. My guess is that you still are quite fashionable, look equally as neat and tidy as you did at 26. What was most beautiful was you and your youth just the way you were.
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Love your writing!
I do have some big hair photos too. They are hidden, in the back of my closet, up top, behind many many many old old things……May they never see the light of day.
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funny post, and congrats on fp! perhaps you could find an Ellen-worthy photo in your drawers 🙂
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Hey, at least your glasses weren’t those upside down kind—you know, where the frames are attached at the bottom of the lens. 🙂
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My sister had those! I feel much better knowing that she looked worse than I did!
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I actually thought your outfit cute. If I hadn’t seen the color I would suggest this to update—khaki color suit, ditch the bow and long sleeve shirt. Add just a simple neck scarf, black I think. I truly think the suit style is timeless. For that time your style was impeccable. I’m sure it still is!
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congratulations of FP. Well done!
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Haha! I’ve seen a few things these days that have triggered only one thought: That look was BAD in the 80’s and it’s STILL BAD now! Probably worse…because people should know better! 🙂 Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
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Hahaha! It’s okay dear, people can relate anyway. Btw, congrats on being freshly pressed! Cheers! 🙂
——————–
colorado springs divorce attorneys
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Fashion… You truly never know what the next trend will be. Sometimes it’s just crazy.
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I dunno, I kind of like your suit, especially when I read the colors it was in. 🙂 Authentically 70s! 🙂
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Good god, that photo is fabulous. You really are rocking that short-sleeved suit… but looking at those specs gives me a sinus headache!
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I think it was years before the tops of my ears stopped aching.
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Congrats on being Freshly Pressed! Yay! Cheers. 🙂
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Truly superb. Each and every piece. Yes, even the perm – please tell me it was one of those roll it and rock it – do it yourself kits!
Priceless.
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No…. I paid a FORTUNE to look that bad!
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thank you so much for today’s first laugh out loud moment – still grinning 🙂
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great blog and excellent post.
marg swarnabhoomi
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Hilarious! As a woman in my mid 20’s, interested mostly in “retro” fashions, I find that my hunting is hit or miss- certain styles are timeless and flattering, but many fads fade quickly! I loved your post, looking forward to reading more 🙂
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Ok the suit’s bad, but you look beautiful.
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Fear the shoulder pads!!!!! The suit may be heinous, but I’m loving the glasses….
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🙂 What fun! I wish I could have gotten my hair to look that good back then. I was so out of style. It was straight then and straight now. When I permed it, it went all frizzy, not cute like yours was in that photo. congrats on being freshly pressed.
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Oh you made me laugh this morning, so then I had to read your other posts and they made me laugh too. Thank you! PS I had those glassess and thought I was the cat’s pyjamas in them. I had the perm too. The bigger and frizzier the better. Now I go to the shops and see clothes I wore in the 70’s. Me? Old? Pah
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Hello! This is funny! I was born in the 80’s but thoseshoulder pads, I just hate them! I experienced wearing it because my mother told me to! Imagine how I looked back then, I was so thin with shoulders so high! I was like someone who had tuberculosis! Haha!
Congratulations on being freshly pressed!
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Hi,
I think that you look great with theses glasses, I use to have the same +/- ! 😉 It was easy to find them ! lool ! No taking about the shouders pads !!!!!! 😉
Have a nice day – Lili
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Love your post …. and your retro look… glasses, purple and all!
I can’t decide which of the two was worse… shoulder pads or polyester…
I guess to each her own …. fashion blooper!
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You didn’t mention the size of your glasses. Though no longer stylish, the large viewing area was very practical.
…and there were bell bottoms!
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I still love bell-bottoms. I am still a hippie at heart.
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brilliant post, i love it when people use their own photographs to make a point. Great read. http://www.geordiesgirl.com
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I think you look adorable! Heh, it was the style back then, you were spot on! Love your blog, I’m adding you to my blogroll today. Glad I clicked through. 🙂
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Great post! I have begged several looks not to come back, and I’m not really that old! I have some pictures of me as a grade schooler in the late 80’s wearing things that were quite fashionable at the time: neon colors, large, mismatched patterns, enormous hair bows. Did I mention these were all in the same outfit? I want to burn those photos but Mom won’t let me.
My mom grew up in the late 60s, early 70s. When my teenage sister looks through pattern books for dress ideas, she frequently gets this horrified look on her face. It usually happens right after she shows Mom something she likes and Mom says, “I had a dress just like that when I was your age” XD
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Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed, Nancy. Well deserved. Enjoy it the ride!
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That picture of yours is really chic and stylish. I think real style is within us and it doesn’t take a lot of money to flaunt it. I guess you’re not quite old in real sense.
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Love it. When I look back at my own old photo’s it is hilarious, my fashion sense during the 70’s, and more particularly the 80’s is stunningly awful. My hair, curtesy of that hideous invention called a spiral perm was as wide as my shoulder pad clad torso. They do say fashion is cyclical but we can only hope some things don’t come back.
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I had a wide-as-the-shoulders permed bob on my wedding day!
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And now everyone on WordPress gets to see! I think the photo is adorable. However, I will think twice before ever posting any old photos of myself! They are absolutely hideous! Think big 80s hair. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed. Great post.
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Yeah, I’ve written more than 150 posts, and WP chose the one with the stupidest picture.
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Personally I think you look awesome in that photo!
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The funny thing is, the shoulder pads were a retro-fashion in the 80’s. They were meant to channel the 40’s. In fact, your whole ensemble in the photo would have been considered retro-40’s in the 80’s. I was in college then, and knew a bunch of girls who even did 40’s hairstyles.
I never did those fashions in the 80’s myself because I was in full-on punk mode then.
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I just had an image of today’s 20-somethings, having fits of horror sometime around 2050 when too-small shirts that expose your tummy come back into style.
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I like to imagine them forty years from now, with their tattoos all saggy.
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What’s even weirder, if that’s a word — I think you look adorable. So there.
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Thanks. I think (or I like to think) that there WAS some slight adorableness in my weirdness.
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Some of that stuff is actually back in fashion lol!
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No shoulder pads ever again, please! Somehow, the ones in the ’40s weren’t bad, but the ones in the ’80s were often absurdly big. With all the progress we’ve made in extremism, the next iteration will probably have them so wide that you’d have to turn sideways to get through the door. Congrats on being FP and thanks for the smile!
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those big glasses are already back unfortunately. I hate them and I see them everywhere.
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Not to the extent they seem to have been years ago. By which I mean the ’80s, through which they must have continued to be fashionable. For both sexes. My dad had a pair.
(Well, I am referring to massive glasses in general, not any specific type…)
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Hmmm I was flipping through the latest fashion magazines yesterday – and every look I looked terrible in when I was 12 is back…I should have kept my flower print pants, my oversized glasses, and learn how to tease my hair again because big hair, big colourful prints, bright pants and I see them coming – shoulder pad will soon be all the rage again. All the teenagers are wearing these. It’s only a matter of time…sigh…
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Hey, look at you all Freshly Pressed – Whoo hoo! The styles were horrific, but the important thing is you were a SIZE 6!! I haven’t been that since second grade.
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Yeah, notice how nicely I worked the ‘size six’ into the piece. I wanted to repeat it a couple of times, but that seemed like pushing it. Thanks for letting me mention it again here.
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Cool post
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Congrats on being freshly pressed. Oh we all have the “what was I thinking” fashion nightmares and I throughly enjoyed your writing. It’s wonderful to be able to look at yourself and laugh.
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No, no, not the dreaded shoulder pads again! Yikes! Thanks for the heads-up. True fashion, I think, is about what looks good on you plus what makes you feel confident. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed. 🙂
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I gotta say, I love this suit. I would wear this outfit. I wish the photo was in color so that I could really grasp the full affect. I’m not joking. 🙂
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Yeah, I remember the big glasses and the shoulder pads, plus sundry other fashion trends that were truly ugly the first time around. I really don’t like seeing them come back. Thanks for the bit of nostalgia!
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You, ma’am, are hilarious.
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And thank you, ma’am.
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This confirms my suspicions that sizes have gotten more generous over the years. That size 6 would be a 0 or a 2 today. If you think finding that photo was fun, just think how we’ll all be able to look back and laugh at ourselves now that we share everything online!
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I wouldn’t say fashion is for fools. Just don’t ever overdo it. It’s nice to be stylish , a dedicated follower of fashion. Just avoid the ones that gross you out
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I think that will be my new motto: “avoid fashion that grosses you out.”
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I was in my teens in the 1970s so believe me I know what it is to be utterly grossed out by what’s in style
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that’s what i’m saying! she said, “size six,” and i thought, “not anymore!” i think it’s called “vanity sizing.” whatever – i’ll take it.
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You are exactly right! I even wrote a post about that. “Size Creep”. Here’s the link: https://notquiteold.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/size-creep/
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Hilarious! I think you look younger today than when you were 26!
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Thanks. My secret is soft-focus on the camera lens.
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I wore teal jeans and a paisley shirt to my first school dance. I’ve started to notice colored denim in the store again – though, paisley still seems safely locked away. I think it’s easier to emprace a fashion you didn’t live through once already. If fashion cycles too quickly, there are enough of us left that remember (and regret) the first time. I just can’t bring myself to dress my daughter in colored denim. I’d like our photo albums to look hideous and dated in different ways.
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I hear it is all because of Princess Kate. She wore orange jeans somewhere, and voila!
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Congrats on being fresh pressed – great post!
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Great post. In 1977 I was wearing plastic baby blue upside down glasses. Does anyone else even remember the upside down glasses fad? I remember my Mom trying to talk me out of them, but finally relenting. In case you can’t picture them, it was the arms that made them appear they were on upside down. I was in junior high, and everyone took turns wearing them, because it went without saying that they gave an upside down veiw of the world. I was in high school at the start of the shoulder pad phase. I am quite short and petite so shoulder pads gave a Sponge Bob Square Pants look to my figure.
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I love that picture! Great style.I do wish you had a shoulder pads picture!
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So it IS true! You really did both get FP’d. Congrats. I can so see why you got it. Amazed at the coincidence. 🙂
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Hipster kids rock those kinds of glasses ALL they time. They think they’re cool when really they look like idiots who can’t dress themselves.
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I’m waiting on glitter tights and headbands. And scrunchies! Oh the horror…
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You didn’t look THAT bad. The shoulder pads scare me more than your outfit above ever could! You (and your outfit) actually remind me of one of my friends in that photo – and she’s in her teens….
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Cute blog. Thanks for sharing. Connie
http://7thandvine.wordpress.com/
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HURRAY FOR YOU, MS FRESHLY PRESSED!!! I love it when people I follow become superstars. And all thanks to those glorious shoulder pads. Because I’m so short, I always wore huge shoulder pads, thinking they would make me taller. But they only made me wider.
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My suit (exactly like yours) was Pepto Bismal pink, and I loved it, too. Same for the paisley nylon shirt, window pane glasses and perm. I think we were adorable. We won’t ever be that 1)skinny 2)young 3)innocent again.
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True…but I wouldn’t want to be that young or innocent. But skinny….
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Oh, heavens, I have a picture very much like yours – only I was wearing a grey and blue ‘poufy’ blouse, a long grey skirt with matching vest, and knee high ‘cowboy’ style boots. The glasses and the haircut were identical, though. I also went through the curly perm phase, the shoulder pad phase, and a kind of bag lady look where everything just sort of hung off me, with no defintion! What WERE we thinking?!?!?
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Oh yes! I remember my folksinger/cowgirl outfit!
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Awesome! I’m sure my mom has some similar pics of me in similar outfits. Have you thought about sending this to the Ellen Degeneres show for her segment on “great” photos? 😉
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I think having about 10,000 bloggers see that mortifying photo is about my limit.
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What a fun post! Love it! Yea the 70s were really hit and miss. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed, it feels great!
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Congrats on Freshly Pressed!!! You so deserve it!! I had to scroll through your bazillion comments to see if I had commented when I first read this post and I don’t think I had—-but I loved it! You had the 70’s pegged and it was an incredible step back in time for me!!! I have my fair share of pics like that—but quite honestly—mine are way worse than yours. At least your hair had some style !! 🙂
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That was a style?
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Yes ma’am…way more of a style than mine!!!
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I’ve been at work since 10 am, it is now 7:20 pm. I have done nothing all day but read your blog (and drink coffee, and eat lunch and take a few bathroom breaks). I consider my day well spent. Thanks!
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Well, A day well spent, I agree!!!! (now get some sleep.)
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ooooohhhhh Yeahhhhhhhh! the short sleave suit with the big sofia loren eye glasses! lovely lovely lovely!!!!;-)
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Best blog on wordpress.
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Wow. Thanks!
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What timing, couple weeks ago came across some pictures of my wife in high school. She was all dressed up in her cowgirl outfit with her horse. It was about the same year your picture was taken. Yes you guessed it. My wife was oh my God look at those big glasses, did I really wear my hair like that. Look at that blouse, looks like it was made out of grandma’s curtains. my pretty wife and I had some good laughs as we read your post over the similarities. Thank You 🙂
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You did it! You got freshly pressed! Congrats.
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I remember the day somewhere in the 80’s when I stood in my pegleg jeans, horrified as my dad delared “I’ll be glad when bell bottoms are back in style” WHAT? *snicker* Never! ahhh, youth.
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hahaha…loved this one… Fashion is not always wearing what’s “in” though, it’s just having the right set of clothes you’re comfortable with. Less is more. 🙂
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Less Clothes or Less Fashion?
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hahaha…less clothes? less accessories? someone once told me that you’ll know you’re overdressed when you’re wearing more than (if I remember it right) 10-12 things (including your clothes and accessories) at the same time.
By the way, congratulations for getting Freshly Pressed! 🙂
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You have an amazing sense of humor! I totally cracked up at “These glasses are the OPPOSITE of contact lenses. It’s as if I needed focal correction for my eyebrows and forehead and cheeks too.” I totally agree, fashion is cynical. I remember my aunt telling me she had a frock with light bulbs on her belt, which was a fashion statement about 50 years ago, and she cant stop feeling embarrassed about it now! 😉 congrats on getting freshly pressed 🙂
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One day I decided that it was time to stop living in the past and throw away my stuff from the 80’s. Then my daughter had 80’s day at school and I had to go shopping for stuff that no longer existed. Then the 80’s style came back (I told you, Caitlin, that Mom’s stuff wasn’t sooooo bad)! I wish I kept my balloon pants, Candies shoes, and slouch socks!! I say keep the suit! And size 6?? You were a hot little number!!
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hahaha, I actually love the picture and the suit looks super vintage chic 🙂
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Congrats on being Freshly Pressed! You definitely deserve it!
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Great post! Thanks for making me laugh this morning. Work that suit sister! Ain’t no shame in it! LOL.
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When the Grunge look makes a come-back…I’ll be ready!
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The return of gigantic glasses may be the only thing that actually gets me into the doctor’s office for lasik. I REFUSE to wear those monstrosities again.
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Ha ha ha ha ha! Well done!!! You managed to survive the fashion trauma that was the 70s and 80s and come out laughing 🙂 This post makes me really happy…you look like you could be my mom’s twin! Gotta pass this one on to her. Keep it up!
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Nance, I forgot to say congratulations on being Freshly Pressed. You so deserve it!
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Thanks for the warning. There will be one exception to the next round, the patterned arm covering will be tatoos.
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Thanks for stopping by my blog… you still have that darned auto-check box, though…
It takes a strong, confident woman to post a pic like that. I was a singer, and I have some doozies of platinum blonde hair in a Rod-Stewart-is-my-brother spiky hairstyle. And fishnets. And… oh, it’s too, too hideous to discuss!! ha ha… thanks for that laugh, because I was also in shoulder pads. I looked like the love child of Joan Crawford and Yoda, too short to pull it off! Amy
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I think I just fixed that nasty auto-comment thing.
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I’m NEVER wearing shoulder pads again. Yuck.
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I hate to say this, but I think you kinda look cute in the glasses and the serious suit. In fact, I may have actually gone to college with you…
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I do think there is something sweet in the photo, but it’s certainly not the get-up!
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I honestly think you look amazing. The hair and glasses are a cracking combo!
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I think you looked cool…and those glasses are back in fashion ‘Geek Chic’ they call it 🙂
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First things first – it took some serious scrolling to get to the comment box. But it’s worth it.
From your writings I understand that you strongly dislike (so-called polite way of saying “hate”) glasses. Am I correct? If I am, then have a high five. I dislike those evil accessories too. Mine are not as heavy but I dislike them with a passion, and a purple one.
Anywho. I sure hope all those fashions from the past century (apart from the pre- and post-war wondrous outfits) never come back. No offense intended, but I don’t like the look of those at all.
Nice blog. It’s going straight onto my under-construction blogroll and also subscription list. Well wishes.
M.
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Great I like ^^
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It might be a relief to know that some fashions stay dead. Like whalebone corsets, crinolines, bustles, codpieces, ruffs…
Yes, of course they’re antiquated examples but if fashion really was that cyclical, we’d never have got out of the Nth century.
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corsets are back in fashion – see this
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I probably shouldn’t be surprised, given obesity rates and the obsession with perfect figures (part of the justification given in the article) though I very much doubt they’ll have quite the universal appeal they once did…
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