the lady in green

One of the Christmas presents I received from, fittingly, my mom, is the book My Mother’s Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes by Justine Picardie. This fascinating collection of essays describes clothing and its meaning associated through history, memories and emotions, as if, the author says “the contents of one’s wardrobe are the manifestation of one’s inner self.”

I love Picardie’s description of a particularly fragmented time in her childhood during (but not necessarily due to!) her parents’ obsession with the Beatles. She recalls wearing a dress covered in tiny decorative mirrors, “glittering in the light like Lucy in the sky with diamonds.” She says, “I imagine the outside world reflected in my dress, broken up into pieces, lots of little bits of beyond.”

Picardie assesses the symbolism of cherished items such as those associated with marriage and “why we cling on to the smaller things that have somehow survived the years, against all the odds, when other stuff is lost: believing that a wedding ring (or a wedding dress) will remain one’s own, in a way most other property does not.”

I also can’t help admiring the fact that her mother wore a black French cocktail dress as her wedding gown, and responded to the question “Why?” with “Why not?” It’s true – WHY NOT?

A captivating read for anyone interested in a perspective on clothing that extends beyond fashion trends into life.