So Not A Princess
This picture makes me chuckle, firstly for the way that everyone is lined up hard against the garage to soak up the last rays of the afternoon sun, and secondly, because it is so very Seventies. There are minis and maxis, wild florals, stripes, and flares, and stockings worn with sandals.
I am flanked by mum on the right, and my sister Serena on my left, and I guess I must be around four. The garage is so very new the photo must have been taken shortly after our family home was built.
I am delighted to see that even when I was so little I liked clashing colours and breaking rules – I am wearing pink and red together (I loved red shoes even back then), although perhaps my mum or one of my older sisters dressed me. I think the pleated dress was polka-dotted. I really dislike Peter Pan collars on adult clothing though – way too childish in my book. But look – I did approve of socks worn with sandals then!
I don’t remember being very fussy about clothing when I was little …
I don’t remember being very fussy about clothing when I was little, except that I deeply and passionately loathed purple (my mum’s favourite colour), and recall once wanting to play outside in the middle of winter wearing only a dress. Mum forbade this excessively risky behaviour and said I could wear my dress if I wore trousers underneath. This was such a shocking and horrifying suggestion I refused to go outside at all rather than court public humiliation. Now such an ensemble is quite acceptable, if no longer at the height of fashion as it was a few years ago.
I also hated this hairstyle (inflicted on me by a well-meaning relative) because it made me look like a boy. I remember – when I first understood the difference between the sexes – being quite, quite satisfied that I was a girl. The boyish haircut possibly explains the extreme girliness of my outfit, for I never was prissy at all. I liked to run, and climb trees and roofs; I always had bruises on the legs …
Still the case (even the bruises, although they’re more likely due to martial arts these days rather than climbing trees) – this blog is called So Not a Princess after all.