The Items that Got Away

[bluepirate]

I waver between sensible and impulse buying, sometimes depending on the time of day, and whether I'm in the vicinity of a glass of wine. I recently dropped £250 on a totally impractical pair of boots at 11pm on a Friday because it's just too easy to access Vinted from my phone when I'm in a devil-may-care mood. It was daft and I've only worn them once, but I'm not sorry.

But in the past I've also hesitated, and lost the item forever. Sometimes I've left it in the digital basket and come back to find it forever out of stock. Sometimes I've saved a picture, and now I forlornly image-search to find traces of the fashion prize I wanted.

I'm thinking of things that I couldn't justify spending that much on, at the time, but which I've never forgotten. I still look for them now, but in some cases I don't even know what to type in as a description: I just have the vague memory in my head, and wish I'd been rash and bought it at the time, because it's been on my mind ever since.

Am I alone or do you still mourn the things you never bought? I have a little list, myself - how about you?

I found a pair on Vinted but they are the wrong size and they've also been sold.
https://www.vinted.co.uk/items/3248503204-dorothy-perkins-pewter-glitter-heels?noredirect=1
If only they had been in my size....ah well....

They are lovely! I had a fairly similar pair from Dune years ago and it was like walking about in shards of glass, sadly.

I think it was because the platform was concealed, they weren't as high as they looked based on the heel, so all of your weight wasn't on the balls of your feet. I think a lot of women's high heel shoes are not designed to be comfortable (which they should be), they are designed to look pretty going from the car to the bar.

Two white leather dresses I’ve completely failed to buy. The shorter one is Teurn. (Lord knows where I’d have worn them. I vaguely follow an occupation that ought to involve endless nights out, but doesn’t. And for daytime they’d be too hot for the Tube in Summer, and too cumbersome to put under any coat in cold weather … 🤷🏽‍♀️ Still, they’d be lovely for swishing about in.)

This looks like the bit of spare cloth that I use to test my sewing machine tension on 😂 Maybe I should just send that to you 😂

@bluepirate Definitely get the skull t-shirt copied, OP. It would be so easy to do; there's nothing to it, really.

I've got a little list, but my much more painful list is of the things I've actually owned, but which wore out - especially shoes.

There are a couple of items I got rid of and now wish I still had! They aren't special per se - just Topshop items from 2004 that have special sentimental value.

One was a brown T shirt with an 'endless surf' vintage print on it.

Another was a pair of 'Cassie' boots - calf length, pointy with a kitten heel, in tan leather. These were super fashionable 20 years ago and seem to be coming back in.

Mainly I just miss the vibe that Topshop had back in the day! We didn't know what we had.

Falabella bag with gold chains, on sale with good discount too. Dithered over ordering it then last one was gone.

Vivienne Westwood trousers when I was with my friend who loved them. They were great.

A white convertible vintage car at a vintage car show - I know it’s fashion!

Diamond stud earrings at a local jewellers (he made his own jewellery), then he sold the shop and moved away, they were great quality and value.

Joseph sequin and silk top, was dithering over it and then went back and it was gone, not available in other shops either.

A blue turquoise embroidered (I think) vintage coat. Sort of satin material. Fitted me perfectly, colour and style just right. I wasn’t sure if I could afford it as just before Christmas but then spoke to DP’s who said they’d get it for me for Christmas, I didn’t ask for it to be held and it’d been sold by the time I went back/rang up.

Gorgeous pics, thanks, and such interesting memories of the ones that got away.

There's an alternate version of that McQueen t-shirt on Vinted but I just don't like it... looks unfortunately like some sort of ugly caricature? Shame as it's £35.

As some of you have advised that the skull t-shirt is ridiculously simple I'll go ahead and commission a version from a dressmaker!

Oof that's nowhere near as cool!

Yeah, at best maybe it's supposed to be a masked wrestler?

@bluepirate - that looks like a mask that is worn in Mexico when they fight (like in boxing).

Mine is from 1989. I was au pairing in the US and the Batman film with Michael Keaton had just been released. I saw some white Converse hi tops with a print of The Joker… little purple and green cartoon ‘Joker’ faces. I really coveted them, but it was the end of the summer and I’d run out of money. I hoped maybe I could buy them back in the UK… but they never came to these shores 🥲.
I think of them often… it’s been 34 years, I should get over it really 😂 I don’t even like wearing converse these days.

Yeah a luchador? It's a shame I prefer the skull as this one is only £35!

I'm poor so it happens everytime I go in a shopping spree😂. I love that skull tshirt @bluepirate it's awesome👌🏻. Currently I am lusting after this coat, but i'm never going to be able to afford it and I will be sad forever😭😂.

Like @SirVixofVixHall I mind more about the things I’ve owned and lost; I genuinely think these will be my greatest deathbed regrets.

A bright red, heavy cotton / linen floor length skirt with a bustle at the back. 1990s‘ Dries van Noten. Abandoned somewhere in Gray’s Inn. The saddest story in the world.

A feather light, square necked, three quarter sleeved black wool dress by Jil Sander. Same era as above, worth every penny of the £500 I paid. Utter, utter perfection. Even sadder story.

An Antonio Fusco tweed suit. Dry cleaners.

Hermes scarf. Ditto.

Black wool Alexander McQueen bell bottom trousers. 2000. I was a size 8 then. Victim, a few years later, of a sudden urge to save on dry cleaning bills by washing at home. Yup.

The worst - a pair of Jean Paul Gaultier for I forget whom knickerbockers. Heavy black and white nobbly tweed. Very early 80s. I would have been wearing them until today - and maybe lent to a museum for an exhibition.

Too many others …

For future ref, candle wax is sometimes sortable. You need to chip as much as possible off (freezing beforehand can help, as with chewing gum), and then iron the garment on top of something absorbent like kitchen roll . The wax melts and gets absorbed by the paper. Wash and repeat if necessary. Silk is the one fabric where grease stains are a nightmare, candle wax on silk can be hard to eliminate, but cotton or wool can usually be dealt with.

For me, a soft green, pure new wool coat, by Alexon, 1979, in Chiesemans, Lewisham. I was a college student and beyond my purse and Mum's, so tried on and never forgotten and I can still picture it on the rail. The other not clothing, but a very unusual second-hand gold bracelet, a train set and I could have splashed out on a credit card but sense prevailed. I've looked for it ever since and never seen anything like it and that's got to be 35 years back, from a wonderful jewellers called Paynes, in Bromley, which is now sadly gone.

Not this one, @YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME ?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1553695650/60s-70s-alexon-bright-green-wool-pea?gpla=1&gao=1&

@RandomersAssociation no, it was full length, a soft marl khaki green, side pockets, buttoned up to the neck, with a neat rounded collar. See, it is etched in my brain and I think my coat obsession originated from the one that got away. Thanks for looking though and coats from brands such as Windsmoor, Alexon, Mansfield were beautifully made and the fabrics were lovely.

there is something else… jade green with white other spots 50s style dress, Allders Croydon late 80s.

Turquoise and bright pink jackets and skirt (those colours not combined) Caroll Allders late 80s.

Tweed jacket Benetton Croydon late 80s.

Purple Snake skin boots in a shoe shop in Covent Garden.
A silk embroidered handbag in a boutique in Milan.
A black cashmere Oasis overcoat in my local charity shop.

Some if these items go back more than 20 years…
And I remember the exact pieces that my teenage babysitting wouldn’t stretch to. I so wished I’d had them.

And I remember the exact moment I bought certain things.
Most of my shopping trips are etched clearly in my mind.
I used to try on all of my clothes & have posing sessions!

Would love to get back some of the great stuff I’ve Oxfam-ed.
However, I believe in the circle & I always find good stuff in charity shops.
Then there’s the beautiful things I bought, and never wore…

I agree it's the ones you once had and let go that cause the most regret. Mine are all high street, bought between mid 70s and late 90s then cast aside in a series of house moves:

Burgundy Oxford shoes - Warehouse
Fair Isle wool jumpers - M&S and Gap
Fair Isle knitted tank top - Top Shop
Wool cardigan in the perfect shade of red - Chelsea Girl
Ultimate midi length trenchcoat - Gap
Shirt waister dress in the heaviest silk with narrow leather belt - Wallis
Midi length tweed skirt - M&S
Deep green corduroy blazer - M&S

Linen blazer - M&S
Two blazers in PROPER (yes I'm shouting) cotton velvet - La Redoute

I could go on and on. I've not included any jeans or trousers because they probably wouldn't fit these days and, for the same reason, only one skirt (always a bit loose, would be fine now).

All would be wearable and look current today but we'd be talking Max Mara prices to replicate the quality. This is why I always go on about keeping your clothes if you've got the space.

I had a Vivienne Westwood ‘tit tube’ top in the early 80’s that my mother threw out when I was away studying. She also got rid of all my original punk t shirts too. I try not to think about how much they would have been worth now.

I still hanker after Marceline the Vampire Queen Dr Martens.

Floisme. Velvet blazers! Yes. I had a pink one from Miss Selfridge with floral lining. Cotton velvet. Plush. Well-cut. Fancy buttons. You wouldn’t see it on the high street now. And only about 30 quid, too! I had a few blazers in velvet & corduroy.