Did the clothes you had as a child influence what you have now?

[lipstickwoman]

I grew up in the 60s/70s with parents from the 'make do and mend' era. I had enough clothes to be warm and clean, but mum made them. I had the odd party dress, a new pair of winter shoes every year and a new pair of sandals in the summer. Very little else.

As a teenager I had a lot less than friends. Once I started work and could buy my own I went a bit mad and it's only recently I've deliberately cut back down again.

I'm sure my clothes buying habit stemmed from a childhood where is didn't have much. Just wondered if this is a common trait.

Exactly the same experience here. Also nice ‘things’.

Yes!
My mum dressed me in awful clothes as a kid. Brown crimpolene trousers, black laced shoes, duffel coats. I had red hair & this was her excuse for a sea of sludge green, blue & brown. She claims it was 'all she could get & everyone was wearing it' but the photographic evidence of same age cousins in lovely party dresses & black patent shoes contests this!

I entirely blame this trauma for my obsession with nice clothes & have always been v interested in them. And, yes, I do look better than my cousins now

Yes i do think there is somehting in that. I grew up same era and had a tiny wardrobe and homemade clothes. I can still remember going to a cousins house and she had wall to wall sliding wardrobes and so many clothes. I was amazed. I do think it had a lasting effect on me as love clothes and love to see them all hanging in the wardrobe and know they are all mine...

Oh 'nice things' for me too that I didn't want to use. I still remember the actual bath stuff I had as Christmas presents one year and didn't want to use them as then there'd be gone.. and there would be no more

Yes definitely, but not in a good way 😂 I had very few clothes and most of them were hand me downs or bought at “seconds” shops with no thought given to whether they suited or fitted. I’m 55 and still no idea what to wear or what suits me and I still hate clothes shopping with a passion

Yes, I identify with the 'nice things' too. I still sometimes have to remind myself that I have money, I work & money comes in every month & if I use that lovely candle/ face cream etc & enjoy it Ican buy more....

Sort of but I think my clothes shopping habit stems fom being a bigger teenager when the only shop for me was Evans Outsize ("Outsize" FFS!) and most of thzt was from the Pat Wicks design school.

And then mainstream shops started stocking bigger sizes and I was - and still am 40 years on - hooked.

1 pair of school shoes and 1 pair of gym shoes.
Whatever the weather, those were my choices, and growing out of them wasn't an option if there was some life left in them.
I have far too much footwear for any weather or occasion now. It's definitely an issue, but I can sort of see where it comes from.
I also never got a pair of those clacky, plastic princess shoes that I had on my Christmas list for years.

I also wanted a pair of the pink glitter princess shoes and wasn't allowed them which has lead to my obsession with shoes (especially sparkly sandals) as an adult. I went on a 5 night cruise once and took 23 pairs of shoes !

Exactly! Also household stuff. Nice light fittings, etc. Though my house isn’t a show home by any means!

@lipstickwoman absolutely the same
here. My mum literally didn’t buy us any clothes really once we were over 11 or 12? We went to a posh private school (thank god for uniform) so I felt very very conspicuous. I still spend far too much and get very nervous about not wearing the “right” thing for the occasion.

She (and Dad) also would regularly let us run out of shower gel, hand soap, sanitary protection etc so I always have absolutely loads of spares lined up. They’re not bad parents they just opted out of the day to day looking after of us Other things like extensive orthodontics were paid for no issues!

Most definitely. I feel that I ‘collect’ clothes because through circumstance I didn't have new all the time. I was happy to have my older brothers hand-me-downs as I was a tomboy and hated wearing dresses or skirts and still do. Also the ‘keep for best’ attitude is still with me. I enjoy seeking out unusual pre-loved clothes though. Im also trying to sift through my clothes, shoes and bags in an effort not to be overwhelmed by choice and having loads but ‘nothing to wear’.

I totally relate. I was thinking the other day that I have some form of 'clothes dyslexia' in that I cannot visualise what would work, get completely overwhelmed in a shop, can never spot the bargains, or anything for that matter, unlike my daughter and sister who are always successful at it and love shopping. I probably need a personal shopper but really can't afford it.

I had 3 older cousins and 2 older siblings, so all my clothes, except pants and socks were hand me downs. I remember my mum going on and on about ‘labels’ and my cousins clothes were all ‘labels’. I just remember thinking that they were about 10 years out of date and hated them. My mum really resented buying school uniform, but she at least bought that.

Once I went on a school evening trip to an ice rink and someone commented on my clothes. I wasn’t particularly upset as I agreed with the comments. I told my mum in a sort of conversational way about the evening. Next day she went out and bought me 2 new jumpers. I still remember my astonishment and also that feeling of ‘oh that’s how it works’. Years of me complaining about hand me downs and being upset about clothes were ignored, but other people’s comments (which didn’t upset me) was seized upon. This probably upset me more.

I have never taken an interest in clothes. I don’t like ‘labels’, and I don’t spend much on clothes for myself. My mum spends loads on clothes, and is still interested in bloody labels.

It was pretty normal in the 70s to have limited clothes wasn’t it. Yes, there was always someone at school that you’d be jealous if who had 4 pairs of shoes, but only having school shoes wasn’t that uncommon.

I guess our parents grew up in times of austerity and money was tight and they were careful….and after they didn’t need to be so careful, it was just ingrained behaviour for them.

My mum made a lot of our clothes. She would try to make something fashionable like a rara skirt, but somehow it never looked quite right and everyone knew it was homemade…..or that’s what I thought.

I’ve got plenty of clothes now, but much of it has been accumulated across the last 20 years. I don’t actually keep buying new stuff as I prefer quality items and know that if I keep buying, I just buy more of the same. Also true with shoes and boots - I will usually wear the same pair of boots for 8-10 years.

There are some pics of me and my siblings in some horrible clothes in the 70s. I know fashion changes, but the brown and oranges were a real low point.

School uniform and pe kit from PTA used uniform sale. Winter coat, undies, socks, summer sandals and winter shoes all bought. Everything else was sewn, knitted or second hand.

I've reverted to childhood now as I make my clothes, although not on cost grounds as RTW is so much cheaper nowadays.

My mum was never very interested in clothes, always more of a jeans-and-jumper person, and she used to buy me the most humpty clothes from the Grattan catalogue: all nylon flares and orange polo necks when the other girls I knew had lovely dresses. Finally got a clothes allowance as a teenager and could buy fashionable things. Ever since, my wardrobe has BULGED and actually needs a good clearout. I get a lot of stuff second hand though, so haven’t blown my budget. My mum still doesn’t understand why I am so fixated on nice clothes.

Not really. We didn't have much money and I was the youngest child so rarely got new clothes. I remember the odd time I would get a new top I had been lusting after for weeks or my first nail varnish being so happy and really treasuring it. Now that I have more money I wish I could feel that way about possessions, I definitely don't value them as much.

I cringe when I think back to what my mother dressed me in. I was a short fat spotty freckly gingery-strawberry red. Unfortunately I've never quite got to grips with clothes since.

TF for black.

“My mum made a lot of our clothes. She would try to make something fashionable like a rara skirt, but somehow it never looked quite right and everyone knew it was homemade…..or that’s what I thought.”

This was me - my mum was skilled at knitting and sewing and I had relatively few things but all were good quality. She understood though, and I remember the sheer joy of arriving home from school just before a school disco to find she had bought me a fashionable skirt and top from the market to wear. I keep trying to recreate that moment I think & have too many clothes!!

My sister younger by 2 years was taller and bigger than me so I had hand me ups and my clothes were also taken in to fit me. My Brownie uniform was altered and it was never "let out". I can't bring myself to buy second hand clothes.

I only had blue things, clothing and stuff whilst my sister always cried and given into for the red and pink equivalent. As an adult I wear bright colours and my sister favours black and grey.

Also I desperately wanted pink jelly shoes but my mother wouldn't let me have them. Christmas just gone, when I was nearly 55 years old I opened a present of pink, glittery jelly shoes. 45 years too late and too small but my Mother has obviously carried around that guilt that I didn't have what everyone else had for all those years.

However I don't have bunions, corns or mis-shapen feet either so perhaps I'll let her off but not for the horrid, black, lace up, clumpy school shoes that the shoe saleswoman said that "everyone would be jealous of" as the tears fell down my 16 year old cheeks.

My DM made most of my clothes as a child, she's an excellent dressmaker so her creations were fantastic, but I craved buying stuff from Tammy Girl etc (80s obv!) rather than DM saying she could make something similar for a fraction of the price.
What she taught me is to look for quality, invest in excellent fabric and fit, which I appreciate as an almost 50 year old. She made my wedding dress which was and still my favourite ever dress.
DM still makes me clothes now, she's currently making some tailored wide leg trousers, a maxi skirt, a beautiful crepe blouse and a yoga top - she's ace.

Mostly it’s been a positive influence on my taste in clothes. I loved the cord pinafores my Mum made me in the 60s, so I still like cord skirts and trousers. I was a knitting pattern model as a child and love a good jumper, also, if you knit you can add a few rows to get round having very long arms.

Brown is an interesting colour - it’s like marmite. It suits me and the photo my Mum submitted for Miss Pears has me wearing brown crimplene admiring an autumn leaf 🍂 These days I’m more likely to wear russet or bronze type shades rather than 70s browns.

One thing I don’t often wear is blouses or women’s shirts. My long arms are the reason. As a child, my Mum altered the cuffs. Static electric shocks remind me of the fabrics of the 60s and 70s and many a mixed fibres item of clothing has been consigned to the charity shop in favour of less ⚡️ items

I ended up with years of a cluttered and disharmonious wardrobe from my childhood experiences. From reading more about spending and clothes it seems we take a lot from childhood into adult buying habits.