(Does anyone even remember those jokes?)
Nancy sent me the link to this when it was still gloriously for sale on eBay (from seller The Olive Shoppe). Whoever grabbed this is going to wang chung tonight, that's for sure.
I kid, I kid, but only because I love. Or rather, I used to love. I'm sure I would have been all over this (or it would have been all over me) when it originally came out. Although I'm sure I would have preferred the bow to be fluorescent yellow, and I would have accessorized with an armful of rubber bracelets, no doubt. Not to mention playing Sade's "Diamond Life" or The Fixx at full blast while getting dressed. I'm not sure I could wear something like this with a straight face now. (Of course, when do I wear ANYTHING with a straight face?)
But this dress, more than all the hot pink & black electroclash fashions of the past few years, has let me know that I'm finally at the point where I can be the person who ruefully says that she can't see wearing the retread of anything she actually wore the first time it was popular! It's a milestone I'm happy to reach, in fact. Now if only my hair would hurry up and go all the way gray. Gravitas, it's all about the gravitas ...
After convincing my 17 y.o. son he would look super in a polo shirt, (after 10 years of tees)now he can't own enough! I however, having graduated in 1985 and owning not one but two copies of the preppy handbook will NEVER wear a polo shirt ever again!I guess "preppy" doesn't mean the same thing now as it did then. You'll have to ask a teen-ager.
Posted by: Anonymous | 04/13/2007 at 08:11 AM
I hope that was bought by some ultra-nerd-cool 17 year old who will rock it at prom with sheer black hose and her hair cascading in a banana clip.
Posted by: Anonymous | 04/13/2007 at 10:09 AM
Just seeing this brings back memories!
Posted by: Sassy | 04/13/2007 at 10:26 AM
This reminds me of a dress I was going to wear to my grad dinner & dance, but thankfully I didn't. It had a black bodysuit-like body with a sweetheart neckline. I was topped with big, royal blue puffed sleeves that made me look like I had cataloupes around my upper arms and a puffy royal blue skirt. I think there was a blue bow(s) somewhere...maybe on the sleeves...ah the memories!
Posted by: Archivarian (An Archival Library Mistress) | 04/13/2007 at 11:00 AM
You are so right:"I'm finally at the point where I can be the person who ruefully says that she can't see wearing the retread of anything she actually wore the first time it was popular! "I refuse to wear anything that looks like the 70s. We knew it was ugly even then and I sure won't wear it now.
Posted by: JuliaR | 04/13/2007 at 02:10 PM
Oh Man. I just got the biggest kick out of those Russian Reversals- we're not familiar. Hahahaha. That is great. And I would never wear that dress, but i love the idea of it. I would, if I was going to wear it, get elbow length gloves and fishnets. And black heels. And then leave my hair the way it is- shoulder length, slightly wavy, and dark brown.
Posted by: Katana Barnett | 04/13/2007 at 02:34 PM
This is totally something Kelly Wearstler would have worn on the last season of Bravo's "Top Design"!"Diamond Life"---the perfect reference!
Posted by: Thombeau | 04/13/2007 at 03:00 PM
Oh, God, total agreement. The first time I saw leggings over pants I just thought, 'Never again.'
Posted by: ambika | 04/13/2007 at 03:16 PM
Yesterday I saw a pretty young thing wearing a t-shirt dress and baby blue leggings with stilettos when I was out for breakfast.Laughed myself silly!I think it is about time we had another decade that style forgot!
Posted by: Anonymous | 04/13/2007 at 08:14 PM
The 80's fashions that are back now are the things I was too little to wear the first time around. I was born in 1980, so it's the stuff the totally cool girls in my big brother's class were wearing. However, I was a teen in the 90's, when 80's fashion was the ugliest thing ever - and I honestly don't think I'll ever like t-shirt dresses, pointy pumps, or poodle perms. All of which I see the teen girls in town wearing (I live in Gothenburg, Sweden)./Monika
Posted by: Anonymous | 04/14/2007 at 12:53 AM
That thing is out of this weird! I would happily wear that dress tomorrow, and I was a teenager in the 80s too. Mind you, I never owned anything remotely like it then, I was much too uncool...
Posted by: Anonymous | 04/14/2007 at 04:55 PM
I am a beginner in sewing with a machine I usually needlepoint and embroider by hand what is a goood machine for a beginner I would like to start on accesories and home decor and work up to clothing.when I say beginner I mean no experience.
Posted by: SOPKA | 04/14/2007 at 09:57 PM
I'm too old now to wear the things I couldn't afford to wear then (the 1980s). Oh but I can dream!
Posted by: Anonymous | 04/15/2007 at 12:39 AM
Do not remember those jokes, but my parents lived in Poland just as the whole Iron Curtain was unraveling, so I understand. Loved the link, and I must be from the 80s, I WANT that dress.
Posted by: Sarah Louise | 04/15/2007 at 10:22 AM
Everybody wang chung, indeed.And I do remember those jokes.
Posted by: Robinson | 04/25/2007 at 09:04 AM
three years later, I still Google this post. Love the dress, love the "bow wears YOU" (I missed the jokes first time around but love them now.)
Posted by: sarah louise | 08/12/2010 at 05:40 AM