Old School Style

Lately I have been struck at how a lot of my old favorite things (and some things I did not care for) from junior high, aka middle school are coming back into style. I guess the old saying is true that everything old is new again. Things once thought "totally like lame" are now very vogue. Things that were once very out of style, are now labeled vintage and today, they are hotter than ever.

I grew up in Oklahoma where lots of cowboys and or hicks wore Wranglers. In Oklahoma they are a common sighting, albeit not really stylish. In Chicago I have NEVER seen anyone in a pair of Wranglers. HOWEVER, I was at Nordstrom the other day and in the women's department mixed in with the Hudsons, Miss Sixtys, Sevens and the True Religions were WRANGLERS. They were priced like their stylish city cousins and I was shocked. Farmer jeans for over $100.00 at Nordies? In Chicago? What is this world coming to?

What about Vans? They are back too. I saw Candice Bushnell wearing the classic black and white checkered ones in a photo about a year ago and decided I HAD to have them. Now they are everywhere. I have 2 pair that I love.
This is one pair I purchased while in vacation recently.

They are a little scary with the skull that looks like a butterfly, but they are pink, so that evens them out and gives them the whole Mariah Carey butterfly feel (HA). When I think of Vans, I think of a boy in 8th grade named Lyndall with a long blonde mullet, wearing parachute pants. I think that is cool. I wonder where Lyndall is now? Does he still wear Vans? He probably drives a Van.....I digress.....

Leggings--seems like just yesterday www.gofugyourself.com was making fun of them for being so 80's, now they are all the rage. Everyone is sporting the leggings. Not everyone looks good in them, but they are sporting them none the less. Not everyone is built like Sienna Miller people!

Remember perfume from the 80's? Most of my perfume when I was in junior high was from Wal Mart or Avon as I did not have a large perfume budget when I was 14 years old. I remember loving Le Jardin, Loves Baby Soft, Sweet Honesty, Giorgio (shudder) and Babe. I cannot find Babe anywhere now. I saw an old bottle of Babe on line for $90.00. Can you believe that? The same fragrance that used to be $2.00 at Wal Mart in 1984 is now selling for almost $100.00 dollars. I had a friend in high school named Wanda who had the coolest perfume. She had a Phantom of the Opera perfume and a Mikhail Baryshnikov perfume. I remember being so impressed by these fragrances. I see them sometimes on various fragrance websites. Maybe someday I will cave and purchase them in rememberance of Wanda. In college I had a friend who wore K de Krizia. I had not smelled it in years, but while perusing a beauty website the other day I found myself ordering it. It arrived at my abode yesterday and I love it. I have always been and continue to be weirdly connected to perfume and fragrance. Certain fragrances always take me back to my youth.

Makeup and hairstyles from days of yore are also creeping back. The "Farrah" is a hot hairlstyle now. Jessica Simpson made the blonde feathery thing hot again. Blue mascara and lavender shimmery eyeshadow has also become mainstream again.

There are some things considered classic that have always been in style--Chanel, Pucci, Hermes just to name a few. These things never had a season--they have been vogue for years and years and years. Does that define a classic? Something that has been in style from the moment it hit the scene?

Do we always long for our days of youth? Is it just the natural order of things to recirculate? With all the new styles, why do we always go back to the oldies?

I think I will wear Love's Baby Soft today......and a banana clip-HA!

(photos from zappos.com and perfumex.com)