Hooray For Women’s Fashions!

By Margie Keane

Fashions

 

I have to tell you, I’m so happy about many of the changes in women’s clothing. I’m happy I’ve lived long enough to enjoy the freedom of fashions today. No more girdles or garter belts. How would you like to have been cinched into to one of those whale bone corsets that the ladies in the 16th century wore?  Although the rubber girdles in the 20th century were almost as bad.  I have a couple of funny stories about my experience with those that I’d like to share with you.

My friend Barbara and I were on the party train, going from Ventura to Santa Barbara for a football game between our Ventura Pirates and the Santa Barbara Dons.  I wanted to wear a knit skirt but my mother said if I wore my knit skirt I needed to wear a girdle so I wouldn’t jiggle.  “It’s not lady like to be jiggling”, she said.  So two days before the trip I bought a Platex rubber girdle, guaranteed not to let anything move.  Barbara and I were having a great time when suddenly I felt this thrrpp!  My girdle was rolling up my thighs toward my waist.  It hadn’t occurred to me that the darn thing needed something to anchor it in place. 

I excused myself, went into the ladies room, rolled it down, giving an extra tug, hoping it would stay in place.  Back to the party car I went and right in the middle of what could have been a very meaningful flirtatious moment –you guessed  it – the damn girdle was on the move again, rolling and pinching once more!  I excused myself again, went back to the lady’s room wriggled out of it and winged the damn thing out the window!

Another story about these fiendish girdles concerned a friend of mine.  She bought one of these rubber traps but instead of pulling it up from the bottom she tried pulling it down from the top, got her boobs wrapped up in the folds of latex. She called me and told me to get some scissors and come and cut her loose.     

And how about those high heels that are so popular with young women today?  When I was younger I couldn’t wait to wear them but the novelty wore off in a hurry.  I teetered along on four inches of skinny spikes and by the end of the day when I took them off I had such cramps in my feet that I cried.  I began to envy men and their boxer shorts and shoes that looked like the boxes they came in. Pure comfort.

When women’s lib came along I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Those Playtex Girdles were long gone, panty hose erased the need for garter belts, 70’s fashions dictated two inch heels, and I sure wasn’t about to burn my bra – I loved that uplifting feeling!

I say hooray to the fashions of today.  We can dress any way we choose and if we choose not to dress – well, that’s okay too.

 

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