Why moms wear Mom Jeans, and other fashion dilemmas.

In honor of Mother's Day, I thought I would share a few realizations I've had of late about motherhood.

I have a degree in costume design.  I remember being taught once that women tend to wear the style of clothes they liked in their forties for the rest of their lives.  I am currently passing the hump of my thirties, and I've got to say, I am totally understanding that now.

The other day I was in a shoe store, and there on the counter was a display of scrunchies.  I actually picked one up and examined it, just to make sure it was a new product, and not something they'd pulled out of an old bin in the back.  This is the first time in my life that the fashion trend of revisiting previous styles has brought me face to face with choices I made in the past.  And therein lies the problem for moms.  It is twofold.  On one hand, we are faced with clothing choices we hated in the past, and now hate again, and are therefore unable to embrace.


On the other (and more vicious) hand, we are faced with styles we loved.  Things we wore, and wore and wore, and one day realized we had to give up.  We sadly said goodbye, forced ourselves to walk away and not look back.  We learned to mock them, though we once loved them.  And now here we are, face to face once more.  How can we go through that pain again?  Is the world just playing a really cruel joke on us?


I clearly remember the first day I wore a belt over my shirt.  It was in the fifth grade, and I talked to my friend about it as we walked to our class.  I also remember my mom gradually starting to wear belts over her shirts, hesitant to do so.  Was it because she was unsure about the look, or was it because she had been down this road before and couldn't believe it was acceptable to do it again?   I wonder every time I put on a decorative belt.  I talked to a mom yesterday whose preteen daughter was trying to slip out the door with an off the shoulder shirt with a tank top underneath.  I remember wanting to wear that look so badly in 1988, but my parents would not approve.  Now I'm the disapproving parent.

Here is a brief list of other things I either wore in the late eighties/ early nineties, or was desperate to wear but they didn't work for me then and certainly don't work for me now, that are all back in the stores now:

Leggings with tunic tops

Skinny jeans

Maxi skirts

Acid/Stone wash

Gladiator sandals

Tiered skirts

Denim jackets

Chambray shirts

Braided belts

Crop tops 

Neon

Vests

and of course, 

Scrunchies

Yes, I have already added several of these things to my closet, or my daughters' closet.  I will probably add more after I fast and pray about whether or not they really are acceptable again.

Which brings me to Mom jeans.  They are a comin', mark my words.  It won't be long now before we are all wandering around looking like the cast of Saved By the Bell.  And I, for one, am excited.  I have (mostly) accepted the fact that my Lenten experiment was a failure, and this is the size I have been while nursing each and every one of my children, and that my body does not like to relinquish weight while I am breastfeeding.  But this loose and jiggly area of stretched out skin around my midsection is killing me.  I think the only thing that will save me is the return of high waisted pants that reach above and beyond my lububrious middle, enhancing my (comparatively) slender underbust.  And if I had a sexy vest to wear with them?  Boy, Howdy! (I have to admit, that video is not so funny to me anymore.)

I do have one other request from the nineties.  Can you bring back baby bangs?  For Addie's sake?  (to be continued . . .)