If you grew up with a mother figure, what do you remember about her clothes and accessories and make-up and such? I remember:
- nylons in plastic eggs
- one pair of black strappy high heels (I broke them when I was 12 years old)
- a navy blue bikini with an anchor emblem on it
- one fancy red dress
- liquid eyeliner
- home perms
- Emeraude perfume
- a necklace of little white birds on a silver chain
- a “Flat is Beautiful” t-shirt
- a pair of tan running shoes
I also remember home perms (one that looked like Barbra Streisand), nude nylons in eggs, a navy blue polyester shirt with horse heads on it (like from a chess set), wedge sandals and another polyester shirt that had a lovely matchbooks print.
* a triangular permed bob
* a white jewelry box filled with “jewels”
* long jumpers
* her vest phase
* a strapless one piece bathing suit
* the same make-up, in the same bag, for years (having surely surpassed some sort of expiration date)
Oh the home perms! The ginomous pink and blue glasses that swallowed half her face! The brown plastic earring tree with all her costume jewelry! Blue and white av0n eyeshadow! Giorgio perfume! The polyester pantsuits and dresses!
Fun topic! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. :)
polyester dresses with belts for teaching.
boots to the knee with leather laces.
cut-off jeans and tank tops.
brown one-piece with white stitching.
winter-leg.gs in eggs!
i’m also throwing two in that were mine because she clearly picked them out:
1. 1000 pinafores, plus one ruffly dress with little bells in the petticoat. (what the..?)
2. pink polyester leisure suit. it was picture day in kindergarten.
Nylons in eggs (so forgot about those!)
The walk in closet (her corner) and trying on all her heels (she had some great ones like a snack skin brown pair that I coveted as a kid!)
Scarfs with kicky patterns on them!
Brown eye brow pencils that had a red handle
Her jewelry boxes and trying on the stuff in there
Her art supplies and art room – it smelled like oil and turpentine regularly! And she always had clay under her nails, paint on her shirts or bronze (the soft stuff before it becomes bronze) stuck to her jeans!
Nylons in eggs (so forgot about those!)
The walk in closet (her corner) and trying on all her heels (she had some great ones like a snack skin brown pair that I coveted as a kid!)
Scarfs with kicky patterns on them!
Brown eye brow pencils that had a red handle
Her jewelry boxes and trying on the stuff in there
Her art supplies and art room – it smelled like oil and turpentine regularly! And she always had clay under her nails, paint on her shirts or bronze (the soft stuff before it becomes bronze) stuck to her jeans!
Nylons in eggs (so forgot about those!)
The walk in closet (her corner) and trying on all her heels (she had some great ones like a snack skin brown pair that I coveted as a kid!)
Scarfs with kicky patterns on them!
Brown eye brow pencils that had a red handle
Her jewelry boxes and trying on the stuff in there
Her art supplies and art room – it smelled like oil and turpentine regularly! And she always had clay under her nails, paint on her shirts or bronze (the soft stuff before it becomes bronze) stuck to her jeans!
– Hair dye hidden under the towels in the linen closet.
– Squeezing my hand the night before I had my tonsils out.
– Jewelry box: class ring, feather-shaped college pin; big, knobby clip-on earrings
– Magical makeovers of hand-me-downs, not just to fit me but made prettier with some fancy add-ons
– Ponds night cream
– Rosewater lotion
– Squealing when Daddy picked her up and swung her around the kitchen.
Thanks!
My mom wore Emeraude too. And Designer Imposters Georgio. Wore the large, rose-colored plastic glasses. Home dye jobs. Long red acrylic nails.
blue eyeshadow! And pink frosted lipstick.
– Merle Norman cosmetics, and going to the store
– Lauren perfume
– perms, both home and salon
– a curling brush (which she uses to this day)
– pressed powder, about 10 minutes before we arrived at her mother’s house on road trips
– yellow and turquoise plaid
– belted dresses
– sapphire (her birthstone) earrings in that little “flower” style
– wedge/fabric sandals with a “knot” over the toes
awesome idea, Swistle.
belted, turtleneck sweaterdresses. a black fake fur coat with big black buttons, keds “high-heeled sneakers,” like espedrilles, blouses with bows at the collar and wraparound skirts. a light blue t-shirt that said “Charlie” and I couldn’t figure out why she had a shirt with my grandfather’s name on it
Shalimar perfume, Mary Kay pancake makeup, Dr. Scholes wooden sandals, Ponds “cold creme”, jewlery box with lots to play with….
Arg, the home perms! Also, the Avon perfume stick, the lily of the valley perfume, her teeny wedding ring, her navy mary janes, the long straight hair down the middle of her back and all her clothes that I coveted that she’d never let me wear.
Arg, the home perms! Also, the Avon perfume stick, the lily of the valley perfume, her teeny wedding ring, her navy mary janes, the long straight hair down the middle of her back and all her clothes that I coveted that she’d never let me wear.
Arg, the home perms! Also, the Avon perfume stick, the lily of the valley perfume, her teeny wedding ring, her navy mary janes, the long straight hair down the middle of her back and all her clothes that I coveted that she’d never let me wear.
I remember clean nude nylons hanging over the shower nozzle to dry, Poison perfume, a Dooney a Bourke purse, lots of gold jewelery…even a nugget ring, never, ever a pair of gym shoes, fur coats, and no earrings! (I don’t have my ears pierced either and I am 30.)
Wooden sandals, with leather uppers and a buckle- what were those called again?
Her long, straight hair, always the same
The SAME hairbrush, with natural bristles and a wooden handle
Blue eyeshadow
I love this post! Here are some of the things I remember—
-Nylons from the egg—and being able to keep the egg when she took the pantyhose out.
-The smell of hot rollers as they heated in the bathroom
-Rave Hairspray
-Sweet Honesty perfume
-cigarettes, the always accessory
-mascara and green eyeshadow
-large tortoise rimmed eyeglasses—but only at home
-clogs and lots of open toed sandals with the knots over the toe (maybe a wooden sole??)
-one good pair of blue jeans
The little sample lipsticks that Avon used to give out (in the tiny white tubes?)
BIG sunglasses
Terry cloth sundresses thrown over her bathing suit all summer long
I remember getting to keep the empty eggs, too.
Belted dresses for work.
Hot rollers.
Bonnie Bell Skin Musk.
Shalimar.
A pearl and diamond ring that would one day be mine.
The sound of her high heels clacking on the floor. I could pick out the sound of her heels in a room full of women wearing them.
Clinique make-up. She used to let me have the stuff that came in the gift sets that she didn’t like. Every time I see one of those green lipstick tubes, I think of her.
Dr. Scholls wooded flip flops with the brass buckle.
Giant sunglass that took up most of her face.
Hm. I remember Birkenstocks, bathing suits with skirts, and almond-scented lotion.
Definitely remember the eggs. Also, hot rollers on the back of the toilet. And those cloth wedge heel shoes where the sides of the wedge heels were covered in hemp string or something. What the hell was that fibrous stuff on the side of those heels anyway?
Oh, Aqua Net hairspray.
My mom was always pretty fashionable for the time period. I remember short athletic socks with pom poms on the back of the ankle and giant glasses.
-Nylons in eggs also
-cross your heart bras
-Jean Nate Bath Splash
-Home Perms (OMG, I had COMPLETELY forgotten about those!)
-Chunky Heeled Shoes
-Pink Jewelry Box with treasures inside.
I remember blue eyeshadow and big, colorful “jewelry” mostly made of plastic. I also remember how Mom slathered herself with baby oil after every shower. I wonder if she still does that?
This was great! I am going to borrow your idea and post my own. Thanks, I needed to remember my Mom in a positive way.
-R-, I’d totally forgotten the pom-pom socks! AAAAAA, pom-pom socks! I remember red, yellow, and light blue pom-poms.
I also remember the L’Eggs. And perms and vests and pom-pom socks. And my mom’s favourite jeans were brand name “Fancy Ass” – they had quite the decorations on the back pockets. Mom also had a few pantsuits and several pairs of cut-offs. And for special occasions would put her hair in hot-rollers.
I remember the way my mom’s heels sounded on the kitchen floor when she came home from work. I loved it because it symbolized to me being a grown up.
My mom had a fur coat that my friends and I used all the time to dress up in, and lots and lots of jewelry.
Wow, did ALL our moms wear nylons from plastic eggs and sport home perms?
I also remember my mom’s coat…a mod style trench. And she wore Charlie perfume.
* colored eyeshadow all the way up to the eyebrow
* pink teasing comb
* Merle Norman cosmetics
* stinky Jean Nate after every shower
I remember long long hair that she would never cut.
giant 80s glasses
long jean skirts with buttons down the front
a big smile on her face all the time
I miss those eggs!
I can’t remember much about what my mom actually wore, but I do remember the little sample size lipsticks and home perms.
my mom had 2 beautiful glass bottles of perfume on her dresser, even though she never wore perfume EVER because the smell gave her a headache. but she kept those 2 bottles there anyway.
I remember Mom coming home from work in her flight attendant’s uniform and how it smelled so foreign to my sister and me, not the way Mom smelled at home. We used to tell her her uniform “smelled like trip.”
Ah, yes, I remember the pantyhose eggs.
I also remember gigantic round eyeglasses, a navy blue cotton dress with an anchor that sounds remarkably similar to your mom’s bikini, very matchy-matchy short and shirt ensembles, and dresses with big collars and bows.
Ah, the eighties.
I remember the jingle: “Nothing beats a great pair of L’Eggs!”
I never saw my mother without make-up;
Shalimar perfume (which is still a favorite of mine);
Doubling up lipstick (a shimmer over a pastel pink);
White shimmer nail polish (which she kept with all of her other nail polishes in a ziploc bag at the end of the couch);
Her hair being up in silver metal pins (the kind that you push the two ends together to open) when she went to bed;
Seeing her bras and nightgowns on the back of her bathroom door…
So many other things that I’ll be thinking of for the rest of the day.
(I just found this blog the other day and have been excited about it ever since. My son was born 2 months ago and it’s great to hear someone else’s thoughts and experiences. Especially someone who can put a humorous spin on it all. Thank you.)
I remember the navy and turquoise mascara with the bright pink lipstick. Oh, and the wings in the hair? And hot rollers. My mama was an 80’s girl.
Wberkebile- AAAA, nightgowns! I’d forgotten nightgowns! Red flannel with white lace trim.
I remember my Mama’s belted shirt dresses! And wedge sandals with sandal-toe nylons. Pink shimmery lipstick and a red one piece bathing suit – the kind that came down long and square over the butt and hips.
I remember my Mom having some very fragrant yellow lotion in a glass container that was her “Dad and I are going out tonight, you get a babysitter” lotion. I’ll have to ask her what that was called, I liked the smell a lot. I wonder if I smelled it now if I would automatically start being hungry for cut up apples, cheese, crackers and baloney that she always fed us when we had a sitter.
Izod polo shirts, shirt dresses, bass sandals and loafers, button down “camp” shirts, a princess Diana hair cut–no home perms for her, rugby shirts, black maillot style bathing suits, and clinique and estee lauder samples for make-up. Also, of course we had the panty hose eggs!
Um, your mom sounds like a sexy badass!
What a fun topic! I remember very fondly:
– Merle Norman makeup applied flawlessly
– hair that was meticulously permed and frosted (that’s Texas for you)
– a closet full of “going out” clothes that were so mysterious and foreign to me
I always thought she was so glamourous and beautiful. I still do.
L’Eggs eggs
My mom’s hair was “frosted”
My DAD had the home perm. I think my mom gave it to him.
Worth perfume
A “dotted swiss” (material) skirt
Clinque
My mom discovered what “color” she was (Autumn) and bought makeup and clothes that were supposed to match what season she was. (LOL)
Pearls that were a gift from her parents when she graduated high school.
Wrap-around skirts
L’Eggs eggs
My mom’s hair was “frosted”
My DAD had the home perm. I think my mom gave it to him.
Worth perfume
A “dotted swiss” (material) skirt
Clinque
My mom discovered what “color” she was (Autumn) and bought makeup and clothes that were supposed to match what season she was. (LOL)
Pearls that were a gift from her parents when she graduated high school.
Wrap-around skirts
L’Eggs eggs
My mom’s hair was “frosted”
My DAD had the home perm. I think my mom gave it to him.
Worth perfume
A “dotted swiss” (material) skirt
Clinque
My mom discovered what “color” she was (Autumn) and bought makeup and clothes that were supposed to match what season she was. (LOL)
Pearls that were a gift from her parents when she graduated high school.
Wrap-around skirts
My mom wore Anne Klien perfume and I loved the smell. I remember the panty hose and the heels for work. My mom has always loved costume jewlery. She had boxes of it when I was young. She also has beautiful fingernails and toe nails, always perfectly painted.
My mom still wears that heavy Merle Norman foundation that leaves a smudge on my shoulder everytime she hugs me. I also remember the basket of needlepoint and needlepoint accessories in the den.
White Linen perfume, Chloe body lotion and painted fingernails. Also, she has a remarkable ability to do EVERYTHING just right.
Also, I’m laughing at the comment above, because my mother determined she was a winter and HOO BOY, there’s a lot of black and fuchsia in that wardrobe.
I remember Salem Ultra Light 100’s, all in ones, slingback heels, a big poofy long down coat, gold chains, charm bracelets.
I remember glasses that were way too big, jeans that were really tapered and really ugly maternity shirts. (can you say tent?!)
Jovan musk perfume. Brown pants of some sort. Reeboks.
I don’t remember her doing any of the 80s fashions- I was the one with the hot rollers on the back of the toilet and the turquoise mascara, and she was telling me how stupid all the 80s looks were and how I would look back at pictures and cringe.
She was right.
Do you remember the purses — I forget what they’re called — that buttoned a “cover” on so that you could change it out depending on what you were wearing? It had a wooden handle that hinged open and closed.
Oh and monograms on EVERYthing!
Leather Bass flip-flops
-Home hair color
-Crystal Carrington perfume
-Nylons in the light blue eggs
-Diamond ring that I now wear
-Cream blush
-Dark brown eyebrow pencils
-Copper Jewelry – big and chunky
-Nylons in eggs (along w/ lots of others, evidently!)
-Yellow lotion from Clinique
-Pappagallo wooden handle purses with preppy swap-out covers
-HUGE sunglasses
-Painting her fingernails on her way out the door (HOW did she DO that?!)
Wigs !!!!
Yes – nylons in egg shells!
Also, a macrame poncho.
Ohh! L’eggs. Shalimar. Lots of clinique makeup- those jade green cases everywhere. Lots of chunky knit sweaters. Perms. Aveda lipstick. A gold necklace with a little dove. Liz Claiborne purses. Cotton nightshirts, and a dark green velour bathrobe that zipped up. Oh, mom.
Powder in a container on the dresser that we’d make a mess out of.
GIANT sunglasses.
Big hair rollers.
A giant handbag filled with everything in the house.
Polyester pants.
Wraparound dresses.
Perms, shoulder pads, nylons, makeup and perfume from Avon (the perfume is only for special occasions of course!), grey toeless heels and tube tops(!) that we used for dress up, a white purse that had a little triangle that attached with a snap – you could change the triangle around with different coloured triangles, polyester, giant 80s glasses, a navy blue dress with white polka dots, a white and blue striped shirt that she always wore with matching blue shorts
I remember the silver bangles she wore on her wrist. It’s a big part of the reason I wear silver bangles on my wrist.
I remember the smell of her perfume, though I don’t know what kind it was. I remember the way her high heels clicked on the tile floor when she was getting ready to go out. I remember very precisely the way she sounded when she read to us and it is her voice I hear in my head when I’m reading to my kids.
my mom was/is very unhip and not at all trendy…i remember being very embarrassed by her clothes at a very early age. she has a bird shirt with tropical birds on it from when i was in second grade! we just had my 10 year high school reunion! she still wears it. now she wears very unhip bug glasses. not the cool kind that are chanel-esq, tapered leg pants and crocs. not the flip flop kind but the clog kind.
i will say that the one thing i learned from this is to find a different fashion icon and not look to my mom for fashion advice.
A mod “camel hair” coat with wood buttons, a pink chiffon dress that I wanted to wear all the time when I grew up, Merit cigarettes, Banquet frozen TV dinners when they went out, and red lipstick
My Mom didn’t perm her hair at home (we in my family are of the naturally curly variety) but she did dye it. I remember ‘Tribe’ perfume, which now that I think of it would be waaay to exotic for me to ever pull off. I remember those hideous stretchy stirrup type pants that hooked under her feet (ISH mother, what were you thinking?!) and a tendency to lean toward heavily patterned dresses.
Leggings
Big shirts
Clog type sandals (tho not as hideous as real clogs)
Really long hair, or no hair (she shaved her head when I was 7!)
When I was a kid she didn’t wear any makeup or perfume, although she wears mascara now.
She was a hippy, it was cool :)
Keds plain white sneakers.
Shoulder pads in the one nice floral print jacket.
Half drank cups of black coffee left all over the house.
Birkenstocks.
Avon “Sweet Honesty” perfume.
Long, natural hair pulled half-back.
Big glasses.
Cotton dresses she sewed for herself and for us girls.
Trying on her wedding dress.
Cotton nightgowns.
Perfect skin. She never wore makeup and didn’t use cleansers or lotions and to this day she is always mistaken for being my sister.
Oh, wow! Trip down memory lane…
a button up denim long dress.
perms, but not at home.
Babysoft perfume (she always smelled like baby powder).
Baby oil after the shower.
Poofy bangs.
A white dress with green dots that was a t-shirt/skirt type.
Striped shirts with collars. (Ick!)
Now, silver ball earrings.
Silver necklace with white gold cross.
Constant hair dying. (Trying to hide the gray.)
Dress pants.
My kids going absolutely crazy when she arrives. (They love her soooo much! As do I.)
I love my mom. Thank you for reminding me how much I loved her then too!!
Oh those eggs for the panty hose. Gosh I remember those.
Also,
– Dr. Scholls (why? so uncomfortable)
– Special K
– Diet Pepsi
– Bobby pins
– sandals with previously mentioned panty hose
– a wallet stuffed to the brim with receipts.
Oh nylons in eggs, or the little orange packets. My gosh I haven’t though of those in AGES! No perms until I was a bit older, but coloring to hide the gray (finally she gave up and is so lovely in salt and pepper). A tray of perfumes in her room that she never wore. Clogs! NEVER wearing jeans out anywhere. To this day, doesn’t wear jeans out of the house.
* Jean Nate perfume
* Rare Earth powdered bronzer in a terra-cotta jar
* homemade holiday dresses with ric-rac trim
* Gazillions of craft projects – my mom would decoupage those plastic L’Eggs eggs with patchwork fabric, stuff them with candy, and hang them on the Christmas tree.
* Birkenstocks (which she still wears)
* Her one pale-pink tube of Mary Kay lipstick
* homemade frozen pudding pops and chocolate-dipped bananas, eaten by the pool
Knee highs
Paris perfume
One pair of navy blue flats for everything
Red lipstick
Blazers. Miami Vice length blazers with huge shoulder pads.
(She bought them for us, too. My college girl friends still tease me about having to wear one when out to dinner when they came up to visit! Ha ha!)
What a wonderful post.
– Chanel No. 5
– Oil of Olay (to this day the sweet smell makes me think of my mother)
– Liquid eyeliner also
– Red … but I’m drawing a blank on what exactly. Maybe a jacket or sweater. But when we were young I think she wore a lot of red.
M a r y K a y make-up–that you had to add WATER to in order to use. (I think this is why I do NOT wear make-up to this day.)
And a pair of “cloggy” sandals that made the most WONDERFUL clopping noises! I loved “borrowing” those….
You know, I’m not sure why I’m not STILL using those great home perms. I think I’ll get one and have Swistle roll it for me!