RHYS BOWEN: I’m in the process of looking for an outfit to wear to the Edgars Banquet, so this has me thinking about what not to wear. My worst fashion errors of the past. At least twice a year I go through my wardrobe and remove things I haven’t worn. Sometimes I look at a garment and ask myself why I ever thought it would look good on me. That pale mauve? Those frills? That top that balloons out like a maternity garment? What was I thinking?
Over the years I have had my share of cringe-worthy outfits. When I was a teen I remember tights were in fashion. I wore bright green tights with a short green pleated skirt and a green cardigan, worn backward to show a low back and high front. I think I looked like a teenage version of the jolly green giant! Those cardigans worn backward were still fashionable in my first year of college and I wore one to a dance.
Also in college I made my own ballgown from some lovely apricot brocade my mother gave me. It was quite risque… tiny spaghetti straps, but low cut, and very form hugging. I hadn’t quite finished it by the day of the ball so my friends had to SEW ME INTO IT. Thank heavens I didn’t have a date who tried to get too fresh and remove it! (I had to be cut out of it afterward)
After that I tried hot pants. Very short mini skirts. Very long flowery hippie dresses, but a couple of occasions stand out:
I was invited to a wedding in England back in the seventies. (I was living in California) I wore a light, flowery two piece outfit, quite suitable for a US wedding. It was a brisk day and everyone else was in a sensible, plain daytime suit. I felt like a peacock who had fallen into a hen house.
The other time that happened, and the worse so far: my then agent hosted a cocktail party for me at the Frankfurt book fair. To meet our European agents. Heady, right? John told me i should stand out and look like the guest of honor. I saw this emerald green silk pajama outfit–wide leg trousers and mandarin jacket. Tres stylish. I felt good in it until I walked into the room and EVERYONE ELSE WAS IN BLACK. EVERY WOMAN IN THE LITTLE BLACK DRESS. And I was the guest of honor so I couldn’t sneak away or hide behind the potted palms. I still get hot around the collar when I think of it. (makes note not to do that at the Edgars this year). Luckily I have no photos to share.
The only other real faux pas I can think of is when I decided to cut my own bangs, but we won’t go into that.
So Reds, confession time. When have you asked yourself WHAT WAS I THINKING?
LUCY BURDETTE: I have LOTS of these, but I bet you were stunning in the green silk pj’s Rhys! I’m thinking of a dress I just gave away. It was strapless with a sweetheart neckline, tight to the waist, then a flared short skirt with a net underskirt. It was pink, with black polka dots and a rhinestone flourish at the cleavage line. Do you get the picture? I wore it to a dinner dance years ago when I’d just met John. One of my sisters-in-law asked if I was going to the prom! (So rude.
I gave it to the Woman’s Club used clothing booth last weekend and it was INSTANTLY snatched up:)
RHYS: Lucy I had the same thing happen to me once. I snapped up a strapless dress with full skirt and wore it to a functon of some sort. A woman saw me and exclaimed, "Oh my God. I haven't seen a dress like that since the junior prom." At the time I was hurt. Now I would have examined her and said, "And I bet you couldn't fit into one like this even back then." No longer s shrinking violet.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yes, Lucy, that would be very hot right now. And I bet you looked great. But you were absolutely right to let that go–it’s definitely a “wear it once” kind of dress.
Me? Well, I stand by my choices, for the time, even though I still cringe. It was 1971, in Washington DC, and I went to a very fancy (cocktail time) wedding in a lavender hot pants suit, (you know, shorts, and a tailored short jacket, very businesslike except it was…shorts.) with white tights and pale loden green shoes. It was BEAUTIFUL and stylish– and outrageously wrong. I thought–I cannot change clothes, so ‘Ill brazen this through. It was a lesson in confidence, that’s for sure.
ANd I got sent home from high school the day before graduation–we all wore our graduation dresses to class, and mine was a very Mary Quant minidress, all white lace, SO pretty and sexy-sweet, which is not what they love in high school, of course. And since when I put my hands to my sides the hem was shorter than my fingertips, I was OUT. I remember thinking–fine, send me home, who cares, you’re not gonna expel me on graduation day.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, so many bad choices. I seem to have a knack for not ever getting things quite right. (And getting my picture taken wearing said bad choices.) But what immediately came to mind, maybe because my daughter's godmother has recently reminded me of it, is the raspberry pink velour maternity jogging suit. Okay, I am 5' 2", and I gained mumble-mumble WAY too much weight with my pregnancy, AND my lovely daughter was more than two weeks late. Just picture me waddling around like a hot pink raspberry stuffed with a beachball. Nuff said.
JENN McKINLAY: Punk rocker here. Nothing can be worse than my bleached blonde faux-hawk, combat boots, and black peacoat that I wore all through my senior year of high school. Thankfully, my mom negotiated that I save the bleaching and faux-hawking until after senior pictures were taken. After that episode, everything is fine.
HALLIE EPHRON: I’m such a conservative dresser I really can’t think of anything I deliberately acquired that was… questionable.I do remember the time we took a family trip to Cuttyhunk, a small island in accessible only by passenger ferry (no cars on the island back then) and without a single actual store. Jerry and I packed food, pampers, beach toys… everything we needed for a week, but we left our suitcase with all of our clothes at home. So for a week we wore the same clothes over and over again plus sheet/togas while we did laundry, and we went swimming in our underwear. It was an exercise in minimalism.
RHYS : So your turn Reddies. Which outfits still make you go hot when you remember wearing them?
