As seen in the photo posted on Wednesday (9 September) I have bought Vogue Italia. In the supplement - Vogue Talents - which identifies up and coming fashion talents from Italy and further afield - they have interviewed a number of fashion students at Italian design schools; one of the questions asked is, "what is your first memory linked to fashion?" It got me thinking about my first memory linked to fashion.
I think it must be of the beautiful party dresses my grandma used to buy me and my sister for our birthdays. I remember two in particular, both made from a chiffon type material. Both with under skirts. Both cream. Both with blue flowers. One had a wide royal blue satin ribbon around the waist; the other, a length of the floral material from which the dress was made. They were quite possibly the most beautiful dresses I had ever owned at whatever age I was at the time (at a guess, somewhere between 6 and 9). But it wasn't so much what the dresses looked like - beautiful as they were - but how I felt when I wore them that remains in my memory. This is possibly my first experience of the impact clothes can have on how you feel and behave. I felt like a princess in those dresses and found myself behaving more like one too - avoiding outdoor games and eating birthday cake with extra special care. This respect for beautiful clothes has remained with me ever since. As well as that feeling I still get when I put on a particularly beautiful dress; I think these memories are also the root of my love affair with dresses in general.
