JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The pandemic has taken a lot from us, and one of the most trivial, yet most fun, has been fashion. We’ve all embraced our status as sweatpants nation (okay, yoga pants nation if you’re fancy, but we know you’re not doing anything other than the corpse pose in them, and it doesn’t count when you’re on the sofa.) I was thinking of this because I saw an old photo of my sister and me, age maybe seven and ten, in our brand new Easter outfits, and I thought well, that’s gone the way of the dodo.
Spring has always been a time for new outfits, shoes, handbags and hats. Hats! Why haven’t we brought hats back for Zoom meetings? A hat would be the perfect fashion accessory when the only part of you anyone sees is your front half from the mid-chest up. We could have been wearing fascinators all this time, and we blew it.
Okay, sorry for the digression. Where were we? Spring clothing. After sweaters and plaids and wool all winter, we got to put on pastels, blue and white and sailor stripes. We traded parkas for trench coats and snow boots for wellies. As a child, I always got a sprightly new outfit this time of year, carefully calculated by my mother to last through the change in temperatures and any possible growth spurts I might have between March and August. I debuted it at Easter and wore it to church, the officers club (once a month dinner out) and any weddings, christening parties or other dress-up occasions that might include children.
Even as a young adult, I would often buy myself something new for spring. Unfortunately, I came of age in the 1980s, so everything I saved from that period is A) too small and B) has eNORmous shoulder pads. I confess, I wasn’t as rigorous as my mother in getting my three kids new Easter outfits - expectations for children’s appearances have, shall we say, relaxed since the 60s and 70s. But I did kit one or the other of them up in the spring frequently enough for it to be a Thing and for Youngest to get put out if it wasn’t her turn to get a new outfit.
Lately, I’m afraid the arrival of spring has been more about buying winter clothing and footwear at 50% off than about pastel jackets and starched skirts. And now I wonder if a year plus in seclusion, with few or no “occasions” for anything dressy, may have struck the death knell of The Easter Outfit and The Spring Ensemble.
How about you, Reds? Did you get something fresh and fancy this time of year when you were a girl? And are you planning on buying anything new this spring?
RHYS BOWEN: I always wondered about the spring outfits I saw in the Easter Parades--always so spring-like and airy. Where I was growing up in England Easter was bloody cold. Churches were not heated and you sat and shivered. So it was still tweeds and woolens. I didn’t get many new clothes growing up. We wore school uniforms so it was one nice dress and one play outfit for the summer and the same for the winter.
For my own kids I think they got new outfits by necessity, when they outgrew and there was nothing to be passed down to them. I was good at finds in thrift stores and we had friends with older kids who passed along clothing. But I don’t ever remember new Easter outfits.
This has been true for me, even when I could afford a nice new outfit. My choir always sings at the Easter Vigil, which is from 8-10 at night and thus cold. We stand outside as the New Fire is kindled and the Easter candle blessed (sometimes in a howling gale). Then we process into the dark church, carrying candles lit from the New Fire. it’s very lovely but quite chilly.
This year I’ll be with family in Arizona and I see from the weather forecast it’s going to be 90 degrees. So a new Easter bikini? I may have to buy a sundress.
JENN McKINLAY: You had me at hats, Julia! You’re right. That was a major oversight! We are not a churchy people. My parents’ idea of Sunday worship was to take the entire family for a long walk on the beach or in the mountains and find God in nature, and we went every Sunday come rain, shine, snow, or what have you - big environmentalists my parents, so there weren’t any Easter outfits. Also, I grew up in Connecticut so Easter was usually on the chilly side. Spring outfits were bought by necessity - weddings, school dances, etc. Now that I’m in AZ, spring means sundresses! I think I own at least twenty because that’s all I wear once the temps are over 85 until they drop back down, which will be in October. Hmmm, I think I have to go see if they’re on sale yet because the hot days are a comin’!
HALLIE EPHRON: This is bringing back memories. My sisters and I each got a new party dress at Easter, and my mother walked us over to Beverly Drive to watch the parade. Yes, an Easter Day parade in Beverly Hills. I have no memory of what paraded. It wasn’t memorable. But I do remember the scratchy dresses, ungrateful child that I was.
I was just reading an on CNN article that the Easter dress this year is a loose fitting cotton frock, a “nap dress”… what we might once have called a “house dress.”
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: New Passover outfits are not a thing, at least they weren’t when I was a kid.
And I have seen the new spring clothes,Hallie, and whoa. I am going to save a LOT of money, since Little House on the Prairie is not my look.
Anyway, new spring clothes? Here’s the thing. I HAVE new spring clothes. They’re the gorgeous ones I bought last year at this time, and they STILL HAVE THE TAGS on them.
Not that I’m going anywhere.
LUCY BURDETTE: Oh we had new outfits--and hats--for Easter every year. I know I’ve dragged this photo out before, but I love it so! It’s my family and the family who lived next door. The lady in the red coat next to my mom is her best friend, Mary Jane. Mary Jane became our stepmother many years later, so we came full circle. Usually we three girls had matching dresses--in this pic my sister Sue and I had the matching hats too. Speaking of church, we adore our Easter sunrise service here in Key West on the beach. Didn’t have it last year, and won’t have it this year either. Oh pooh.
JULIA: Lucy, I love the little guy in front who looks like a short Frank Sinatra!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hats, yes, please! Why don't we wear hats in the US like they do in the UK, where you don't need a special occasion? Lucy, your photo is totally adorable. I had Easter dresses, too, with the ouchy starched petticoats, worn with the patent leather shoes. But my parents were never more than C & E Presbyterians, so by the time I was in grade school Easter had fallen by the wayside, replaced by their devotion to golf.
This year I am desperate for dresses--and for a place to wear them. My daughter has booked us a very posh champagne afternoon tea for Easter Saturday, and just this morning I ordered a dress from Anthropologie, quite ruffley in bright blue.. Cross fingers it fits! Hank, I think the designers are going for Little House on the Prairie because they're afraid no one will be able to get into fitted clothes after this pandemic year.
How about you, dear readers? Did you-do you-will you get a new ensemble for spring? And what about these prairie styles and "nap dresses?" Hard to imagine Marjorie Reynolds or Judy Garland wearing one...
