Are you surprised, dear Blogees, by my choice of topics today? Never really imagined me as the kind of gal who even had an opinion on playsuits or could even say the word without collapsing in either a.) hysteria or b.) feminist rage?
Well, perhaps you have forgotten that I have a fourteen-year-old daughter. A fourteen-year-old daughter who is the proud possessor of three actual garments she refers to as playsuits.
I feel faint.
It’s a very strange feeling to have become the dinosaur you always imagined your parents were. It never seemed possible that my generation would ever be out of date — we were radicals, progressives, feminists, marching for equality and genuinely believing that we were the future. We threw off our corsets (or was it our bras?) wore boots and jeans and biker jackets, or short skirts with boots and biker jackets, and it was all very sexy — but somehow totally un-girly.
It’s not that my daughter is simpering in any way. Her school turns out Masters of the Universe women who shun typically female subjects like art and English (which is what I studied at university) in favour of astrophysics and politics — which fills me with admiration and awe.
But what is it with the playsuits? The flippy skirts, smoky eyes, mascara, the high high heels…
I looked in the mirror the other day and realized that I was wearing the exact same outfit I wore at age six: a red and blue striped t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. I’m 54 and it can’t be right to have evolved so little.
I’m suddenly coming over all tyrannosaurus rex.
We need photos.
I too wear the stripey top, jeans and sneakers combo. As for playsuits, there are a couple of mums at my daughter’s school who wear them and look ri-di-cul-ous. Definitely best left to the under thirties, I say.
What IS a playsuit? I thought you meant a babygro. Does your duaghter REALLY wear these?
Daughter (I’m in shock)
P.S. Perhaps because I’m nearly 56 I’m even more of a dinosaur? Those two years make all the difference…
I’ve just had to google them … so now I know (what a daft name).
PS I’m 52!
Fashion is a curious thing. As someone who grew up under Mrs Thatcher’s unlovely reign, I would never EVER have predicted that 30 years later I would lust after, possess, and, yes, wear blouses with pussycat bows. Maybe in 30 years or so, we’ll all be in playsuits. Kind of doubt it, though – how the heck do you go to the loo? Does the whole damn thing have to come off? If so, count me out. (Sorry to lower the tone.)
This is what makes them terrible for camping. Because yes. Unless you have one with crotch-snaps, which even *I* would be appalled by.
I once had a garment with crotch snaps. It was embarrassing in so many ways I don’t know where to start.
(Sorry to further lower the tone.)
By ‘playsuits’ do we mean ‘rompers’? Like, short onesies for adults? Because when those became A Thing I looked at them and said, Those are very stupid and I will need at least two.
I fully understand that I will look back in ten years (probably two years) and LAUGH AND LAUGH, but I will also laugh at clothing items I think are quite dapper now, so I may as well wear the shit out of it.
Plus, something about wearing a romper makes me want to roll in the grass with puppies. SOMEBODY BRING ME A PUPPY.
You certainly do have to take them off for the loo – if they’re the same as what were also called “jumpsuits” back in the 1980s. I had a red, a blue one and a cream one. I must have been stark, staring mad. Every trip to the “facilities” – which were many as I used to like pints of 4X in those days – involved taking the blasted things off or risking trailing through the floor detritus (ugh.)
Tone is now well and truly lowered.
I think the modern ones have short trousers rather than long? Probably slightly easier to manage!
Ooh, yes, jumpsuits or flying suits, I believe they were also called. I had a blue tartan one. Yes, truly. You rolled up the legs a little, like Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and I suspect they probably had batwing sleeves. And a wide belt. The queues for the ladies were awful for a couple of years as we all struggled in and out of them! Better or worse than playsuits – possibly just more suited to our climate? I see playsuits around town and just want to hand the wearers a nice sweater …
Oh dear. I don’t know if ‘playsuits’ have yet to make the scene here across the pond but if they do I am quite sure my 13 year old will know about it. This does not bode well. I recall all too unfondly my own days of jumpsuits and “body shirts” (snug-fitting shiny 100 percent polyester with snaps at the bottom). I remember thinking I was really stylin’ when I wore my vivid orange body shirt splashed with large images of Winnie-the-Pooh with a red-orange skirt, white kneesocks, and large blue suede shoes with huge white eyelets and white laces and soles.
Having conjured up that image, I think I need to have a lie-down.
Me too. Especially as it reminds me of a similar outfit I once wore.
I think the name suggests too much
Meg, this post (and responses) cheered up my whole day. You’re collecting these posts, right? You’ll compile them in a book, right?
Well, this is a horrible trend I completely missed, probably because my daughter, my stylist, is now 22 and around less. I had to research it, and was appalled to find that skinny jeans are now going out and flares and bell bottoms are coming back in. I was just packing up those to give away, having finally gone over to the skinny ones. If I had only saved my “hip-hugger” bell bottoms, as we called them then. As if I could get back into them.