The year of no more: The clothes I remember

I didn't have a lot of clothes when I was growing up but I had enough. Enough so that I could share a wardrobe with my brother or sister. Enough so that  my mother could pack the holiday clothes of all three children into one suitcase. I grew up in the days before tween fashion, before mock children's lingerie, before cotton on kids, Gumboots, Pumpkin Patch and Gymboree. Our choices were limited and we shopped twice a year (summer and winter).

The first dress I remember was a lemon A-lined and capped -sleeve party dress. It must have been made by a neighbour because my mother didn't sew and it had a matching yellow triangle head scarf and I seem to recall that it came with a matching yellow coat hanger. I wore it, with knee length white socks with a frill, to church and to birthday parties.

The next dress I remember, a paisley purple halter neck dress, was a present for my eighth birthday and is responsible for my long-held belief that I look better in a halter neck than anything else. I wore them with  pair of brown "JC' sandals.

I'm going to skip over the 80's (my teenage years) except to say that Princess Diana and Duran Duran had a lot to answer for (think ruffled shirts and maroon suede pointed ankle boots).

I was engaged for the first time in 1990 and wore a second hand, olive green, silk and lace frock from the 50s teamed with a pair of black, greasy, buckled doc martins. I was married in black velvet.

When I was pregnant I was big on overalls. Long and denim for the winter, short and cotton for the seemingly unending summer.

For my second wedding (organised in Hawaii in just 24 hours) I wore a short halter neck number which (purple paisley aside) was largely reminiscent of my 8th birthday dress. My daughter, still perhaps under my influence, also wore a halter neck.

My first triathlon suit came, too late for my first triathlon, in the post and, given it was lycra, seemed to be cut to flatter. It was my first ever internet clothes purchase and an overwhelming success.

All these pieces were more than clothes to me, they were symbols of what I was, what I could be and what was to come.