Thursday, February 24, 2011

A big box of memories . .

I have been going through boxes of 'stuff'.
Lots of this 'stuff' has been accumulated between various moves, homes and relationships and much of it is now, at home, in one of those stupidly expensive inner-city storage spaces.
And boy, you should see what I been uncovering. It was a rummage through big chunks of my life.
There were exercise books from high school; modern history essays; school reports; musings to former boyfriends (that were never sent); hard copy pictures from when I first started writing in newspaper-land and even dolls, all of whom I had named with pinned-on name tags that are still in tact.
There was my old McDonalds uniform (ditto for my green school uniform); a tonne of small bits of bric-a-brac that I had picked up on my first travels; a heap of photo albums and even an impressive dot painting by indigenous artist Russell Saunders. (It was a thank-you gift when I guest judged the 'Flair' fashion awards in Taree in 1997.)
Looking back at 'stuff' from your past is cathartic and in my case, it also pin-pointed some good and questionable fashion memories.
There was some crappy and some kinda cool stuff. And once I'd brushed away a wee bit of cockroach poo from some of it I found a Christian Lacroix, panne velvet floral jacket; an Azzzedine Alaia black short jumpsuit and a beige cream safari suit (both from the early 90s); a stack of 'vintage' Morrissey & Edmiston pieces (even some M&E alligator vinyl pants); a YSL 'Variation' red suit; a Thierry Mugler tie-dyed biker-shape jacket and of course, all my school formal dresses.
One from Thornton Hall (it was a hot New Zealand design house) as well as a Lynda Car frock in blood-red. It was silk georgette short, swathed and if I remember correcntly, a dress in which I think I got lucky.
Not forgetting a Jonathan Ward green velvet dress, complete with a huge, matching, satin-back wrap. There are a series of Stephen Galloway exquisite white, puffy shirts and brown, wide-legged silk-georgette Palazzo pants. And hey, even a George Gross beaded jacket with gold and silver matte beading on cream silk.
The red woollen Armani Exchange military jacket is quite fantastic (and will get a run this nyear) as is the Norma Kamali, tan-colored over sized shirt. Mad about the Cartier soft briefcase (and without the mildew, it will come up beautifully) and there's even a cream silk kimono with black spots from some hard-working artisan in Japan.
And in amongst all the fashion-ese there's also a box full of trophies, medals and ribbons from my dancing eisteddfod days and a tonne of baby clothes that I wore, let alone the Gucci loafers given to my son when he was born.
I still love the delicious cream 'Val Doonican' cardigan my mum knitted my son (google Val and you'll get the picture of his penchant for cardies).
It's funny, but it's like what do you do with all this stuff?
Will my son 'get' it once I explain what it's all about?
I only wish storage costs weren't so darn expensive, otherwise I would keep it, and lots more, forever . . . .

4 comments:

Annieb25 said...

I love going through my old memory boxes, though I won't find anything quite as exciting as you did. It is lovely to look at reminders of past years and wait for the evoked memories to come rushing back. I hope you can keep lots of it forever.

Susan @ Reading Upside Down said...

Were the YSL, M&E, Lacroix and other fashion highlights cringing away from the polyester glory of the McDonald's uniform?

I doubt unpacking of my boxes of memories and momentoes would uncover such fashion glory, although there could be an inglorious navy McDonald's uniform in there somewhere.

I'm in the process of sorting through various keepsakes and memories now. Unfortunately there is limited space and some things just have to go. I'm still not sure where to draw the line.

Melissa Hoyer said...

and then you start wondering . . will anyone care about your 'stuff' once you do depart this earth . . x

Sandy Bruns said...

Missy, I get what you're doing.

It's broken my heart trying to dispose of my parent's and grandparent's treasures, now they're all gone. Stuff they carted in tea chests, by ship and rail, all the way from Hungary.
But seriously, who wants Hungarian bric-a-brac? And century old University diplomas and documents?
Oh dear... what to do with what's left of two whole generations of my family?
I've kept a few (about 10) boxes, and all the photos and paintings.

Like you, my personal possessions are now mounting.
As for your short life's storage stash; I suggest you condense it into 2 boxes. You haven't missed it, have you? Keep the expensive fashions (!) and ditch the medals etc. Throw stuff out, and photograph it for memories sake, if you must.
Imagine if we were in the floods or earthquake; what would we take?What is important?

You worked at MacDonald's? They didn't even exist when I was the age to work there. Hahahahaha

Good luck. Love the blog. XXXX