Crunchy Old Photos

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When people always ask me when I first discovered I loved fashion, my immediate answer always reels off as ‘Ever since I could dress myself…’.  I stand by that statement and not to discredit my mum who had the best intentions at heart, because when I couldn’t dress myself as a wee child and did have outfits forced on me, I have evidence that some sort of alternative fashion style was imposed upon me that very oddly juxtaposes with what I’d wear now…

Behold…. crunchy old photos where the colours seem to be far more vivid than my digicam ones (alas I couldn’t scan them in but had to take blurry photos of the photos….) where the mummy has put me in things that I would never ever think of wearing now…

The Grandpa Collar Shirt – Shirt collars done up all the way to the top in general scare me because of school uniform nightmares that consisted of a stiff shirt collar and tie strangling me mid-class (a reccurent dream that I kept on having aged 8 that I haven’t quite deciphered yet…). A grandpa collar shirt, whilst elegant and classic in its own way has me reaching up to my neck in protection…

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Heart Shaped Sunglasses – Pre-Katy Perry, I never liked em’, post-Katy Perry, they’re even more irksome… but on a trip to Switzerland, my sister and I are sporting quite fetching clashing outfits (I’m the one in purple) and yes I have a pair of yellow heart shaped sunglasses perched on me and I also seem to be doing a ‘Yo Booyakasha!’ pose…. a frightening combo I think you’ll agree.

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54 comments

  4. You are tooo cute!
    Such a fashion fanatic at a young age, your hair cut in the beach scene is remincsent of the Katie Holmes/Suri Cruise bob..
    As for the heart shaped sunglasses, diva! xx

  5. I have a loathing of grandpa collars too and always swore off heart shape glasses. You must have been a nicer child than me as I had my first fashion fit at 18 months in M&S when my mum tried to put me in a patent blue mac and I wanted a red one!

  6. Oh my god, I am trying not to laugh too much at that hip-hop pose in the second picture, too too funny. Also, you look so much like you in the first photo. I know that sounds mental, but you know what I mean…

  8. So cute! My mom dressed me in some pretty horrid things too….though looking back on old pics I find myself saying “man, I wish I had those white floral leggings in adult size!”
    -Giselle <3<3<3

  14. I have 2 sisters: on a holiday to italy my mother once insisted all 3 of us wear identical outfits every day; pink dungarees, yellow shorts and t shirts, and my particular favourite: the day the 3 of us went on a boat trip in matching sailor suits. Shudder…. x

  15. Ohhhhh! So cute! I think everyone had a bowl cut at that age, didn’t they? I certainly did…oh wait, I have it again, don’t I?
    Personally I had pretty cute clothes from about birth to age 4/5 (my mom is a sewing genius and made most of them for my sis and I) but at around age 6 a spider crawled up the leg of my jeans, and I refused to wear anything but elastic bottomed sweats for the next 3 years. Very unfortunate.

  19. Ah you were adorable!!
    I remember having a major hissy fit at 5 years old because my mum made we wear a pair of grey tartan flares (it was the 70’s) and my cream cable knit jumper to go and see Santa. I HATED the trousers with a raging passion, but my mum loved them. I have a photo of me sitting on Santa’s knee, in said outfit, looking mightily pissed off.
    Angie, I had a bowl cut too, when I about 7 or something. I actually went to the salon with a photo of Joanna Lumley when she was in the Avengers to get myself a ‘Purdy’. I also repeated that haircut, in my 20’s, but I was going for a whole Joan of Arc thing then.

  20. i laughed til i feel out of my chair at the ‘Yo Booyakasha!’ pose comment

  22. ha ha, bowl cuts for everyone!
    I would have been HAPPY though if I had stuck with the bowl. For some reason I got it in my head that I wanted a PERM, in grade TWO!! I think I just wanted to have Barbie hair. Anyways, for some crazy reason my mom agreed (I think because she had a perm already) and they permed my little 7 year old virgin hair…and cut it into a mullet!! Oh my god, it was horrible. I cried before going to school the next day, and my teacher called me a poodle. Traumatized much? No wonder I eventually went back to the bowl!

  25. Thank God there are enough years between myself and my sister that we never had matching outfits!

  30. Ha ha DJM, I also had a Purdey haircut and thought I rocked it so well in my (pre Alexander McQueen) union jack maxi dress celebrating the queen’s silver jubilee in ’77! Susie, what year was that 2nd pic taken? Looks v Paninaro to me!

  31. These photos are fabulous! Fabulous really isn’t the right adjective because they’re cute and lighthearted but also profoundly beautiful. I can’t be the only on feeling this.

  33. Ahhhh!!! Too cute! I once sported a bowl haircut too, I think it’s a given if you were an Asian kid in the 80’s 🙂 Your mom seems to be quite stylish in the way she dressed herself & you. Serious! xx

  39. aaaah, Way too cute! Wow you were way ahead of the times with that YSL bowlcut!… Then again I had one too! I think everyone had that haircut at some point
    You were so adorable, that first picture is such a nice moment. goreous.

  40. You are too cute for words. I don’t get to read about your sibling. Is that your sis or bro? Younger or older?

  42. I really like looking at old photos – it’s all about the clothes available at the time, not what was cool. The colours are always amazing back in the actual eighties, I have similar photos myself. I think everything does affect you overall, perhaps your dislike of high-neck grandpa shirts comes from a bad experience that you’ve blocked out (not just the dream).
    And I love the hiphop stylin’ pose. That outfit would not look out of place today.

  48. Too cute! You can totally tell it’s you in that first photo. I too had heart-shaped glasses as a child, only mine were red. To be truthful I kinda miss those days when I didn’t care about looking ridiculous and those glasses were the eptitome of style.

  52. cute photos, i like when people post childhood photos. I recently posted up childhood photos on my blog as well. Funnily i relate more to my childhood self now than when i did when i was a teenager.

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