Clothing as a time machine

[Susan-031314 179]

I don't have anything exciting like a wedding dress to aspire to, except for a bridesmaid dress that I wore at 16, uh, 38 years ago, but that will be quite a few months from now. Today I traveled back a couple of years to some pants I wore on Jan 23, 2012. It was a much better experience than last time I wore them, when I totaled my car. I love how the years are melting away.....

Tell me your stories. Where and when do the clothes in the back of your closest take you?

[LivingFree! 478]

Thanks for a great topic. . .

My closet/storage boxes had sizes from 8 to 26, spanning years from about 1968 (I was 16) to present (You probably know the thinking--I'll fit in to that again SOME DAY!!!). In the three years since my surgery, this "time machine travel" has been one of the most fun aspects of WLS for me. My wish for you is that you find some super happy memories as you shrink into some of those old clothes (well--at least a little happier than the last time you wore it you totaled your car!). Here's some of my fun stuff:

1) A Mickey Mouse sweatshirt from 1968, size S, from a memorable Disneyland trip in high school (me and friend meeting two Marines from Camp Pendelton--Shhhh--dad never knew)

2) Old bathing suit from early 70's. Never wore a bathing suit since. Big moment for me to wear that bathing suit again (rotten elastic but amazingly still wearable)

3) Whittier Bicentennial sweatshirt 1976 celebration of our country's Bicentennial 1776-1976.

4) Many old career dresses from '70s & '80s--big white collars and shoulder pads--and everything had to be dry cleaned. After all these years, the

ones I wanted to try to "save" I threw in the washer (what did I have to lose?) and found them to survive just fine without the need for dry cleaning.

5) Waaaay in the back of the closet--my long dress that I wore to Grad Night at Disneyland in 1970! It fits this year for the first time since then; how or why it survived all these years I have no idea, but it's quite a kick to wear it. . .

I took pictures, wrote personal notes, made some scrapbook pages, talked about it anyone who would listen (and some who surely thought I was slightly crazy) and love that I have these and so many other memories connected to old clothing (who knew???) to look back on forever.

Hope you find some fun and joyful time machine travel of your own.

[Susan-031314 179]

Thanks Lil Princess. Now I don't feel quite so bad about saving my high school drill team uniform. It will be way too short for me, but if it doesn't fir this Halloween, I'll wear it the next year.

And your secret 'romance' is safe with me!!!!,

[piercedqt78 658]

I have my wedding dress from almost 14 years ago. I was going to wear it next year again to renew our vows for our 15th. We were originally married in Chicago and my family from Florida wasn't able to attend. Now we are living in Florida and I thought we would have a vow renewal to let them Celebrate our marriage with us, and get to see us exchange our vows and have a party afterwards. Well now my wedding dress is waaaayyyy too big, and I won't be able to take it in at all. The only original thing that still fits will be my hair pins, and jewelry even my shoes are too big now. And I don't want to cut my dress up because my daughter says it's beautiful and she would like to wear it to her wedding some day. (it's a very simple victorian lace overlay style dress) Or at least she will use the lace to make her veil. It's a size 16 and I was about a size 14 when we got married, but formals run small. Well now I'm a size 2 and in some cases I'm a size 0, so there is no way to make it work without destroying it. I guess that means I will just have to buy something new, sigh, it's so hard getting skinny. Hubby says I should buy something simple but really sexy, since I went more conservative last time. And I have the outfit that I wore to my daughter's baby dedication day at church, it looks like a tent on me now. I will be using that as my before in the fashion show that my surgeon does a few times a year. They have patients walk out with a pre-op outfit held up, and when they hit the runway they toss it aside and let the people see how small they have gotten. It's really an eye opener for pre-op or being that are just thinking about surgery. And my favorite are the recently post-op people that gasp, point, and cry at the thought of that being them some day. I know that feeling, that your heart is going to leap out of your chest just thinking about that kind of loss.

[beeteroo 166]

I am starting out my weight loss at a tight 24....prob more like a 26 and the smallest size I have in my closet is a 22! I'm so excited to do some shopping in a few months! I might have a business suit that's an 18....but that's it. I can't wait to go through all my clothes and get rid of them! This will be the last winter of me wearing any of the clothes in my closet! even my coat! I'm going to be broke!

[getnhealthyintx 281]

I have clothes from 2-26 in my closet. I seperated my closet into I can wear now, maybe in 20 lbs, maybe in 50, and not since high school 20 years ago. As one section gets too big, byby clothes. Mistakes i made inthepast was keeping clothes after they were too large. A dress I purchased years ago in a 10 is my goal right now.

[piercedqt78 658]

my one BIG piece of advice is to keep something that you can wear right now, and have it as a reminder. I have a few things, and when people who I haven't seen in a while asked how far I'm come I can show them my before/after by holding up my old clothes.