It's not the appearance, it's the essence
Thinking back and rewinding the cassette, I have always had a good relationship with clothes. Since I was very young I was very aware of fashion because my older sister and an aunt used to buy magazines like Cosmopolita, Coqueta, Vogue, Elle and Hola where we could see what the trends of the moment were.
I grew up in the 80's so I had a lot of influence from pop culture: colorful clothes, sometimes baggy or too tight, gelled hair, lots of plastic jewelry, heavy makeup and colorful bandanas for my hair. She was a teenager who imitated not only the way big stars like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper dressed; she also imitated their dance steps. At every party I went to I imitated the choreography of these singers and I even won several awards for it.
There was a time when a group of us girls would get together to exchange clothes. At that time, my mother bought a sewing machine and every week I would tell her to make me a new garment. It was the time of “lambada”, a trend that not only made a dance fashionable, but also a very feminine way of dressing that consisted of wearing short skirts, flat cloth shoes and a short blouse. I don't remember how many skirts my mother made and how many blouses, but there were many.
I notice that I have always been very feminine when it comes to dressing, so much so that there came a time when I used to wear a lot of dresses. Cumaná is a hot city and it lends itself to wear cool and colorful clothes. It is strange, for example, that someone wears a jacket or linen or wool clothes, even if you wear boots, people may look strange. Here, however, women prefer to wear blouses, flannels and sneakers.
Wearing dresses and long hair are two of my biggest trademarks as a person. Only when I was a child I had short hair and the dress is one of the garments, formal and informal, short or long, that I wear the most.
Nowadays, I wear some clothes that may be fashionable, as long as they fit me well. I know my body and I know my age (I'm 50), so I only wear clothes that go with my style, that I feel comfortable in. I like it when people tell me: “I knew you had arrived, Nancy: the air smells like you” or I knew you were coming down the stairs because “I heard the sound of your sandal heels”. Even some family and friends have confessed that they can't see a dress in a clothing store because they remember me.
Just as some writers have their style of writing, so some of us have our style of dressing. And that style comes with time, when you've tried what doesn't work for you and what does. My style is fresh, colorful, feminine and vibrant: very much like me.
This is my participation this week for our great friend @ericvancewalton's initiative: Memoir monday. If you want to participate, here's the link to the invitation post.
All images are free of charge and the text is my own, translated in Deepl