Wednesday, February 19, 2014

tears, tunes and tartan taffeta.

Do you remember your high school dance?

When Kylie, over at Lucy Violet Vintage, wrote about her year 12 social with a photo of her resplendent in a tartan taffeta dress, well I couldn't believe my eyes! Because Kylie was "that girl" - you know, the sort of girl you wished you could be. I wished I could be that girl with that frock and those friends at my year 12 school social.

Instead, I attended my high school dance as a quietly belligerent 80's punk. I wore a wedding dress which I had cut up and sprayed with splashes of black fabric paint, accesorised with leopard print leggings and lace up boots and hair standing 6 inches up off my head. Yes! I was that girl

But wait! That's not all! The afternoon before the dance, I also dyed my hair electric blue. No big deal these days - but back then in the dim dark 80's, I had to get my sister in the city to buy the hair dye and post it to me - the parcel arriving on the day. Okay so I know I was looking a bit different but thought there was a level (a low level but a level more or less!) of acceptance of me and my funny clothes and sticking up hair within the school community. (Yes I know the girls told me I couldn't do my deb because I would ruin the phots but they were joking right?)

Have you ever had one of those moments when you fall into a ravine? When you're like Wylie coyote in "Road Runner" and you've stepped off a cliff but haven't realised it yet? And you're running in the air, just before you plummet? Well that was me, arriving at the dance. I thought everyone would go, "Oh look! There's Julianne looking freaky as usual". I didn't expect the gasp followed by the silence. Me running desperately in the air before I started the rapid descent! 

I hid in the toilets for some time but I could hear other people at the sinks talking about me in there too. So I was dragged out of there by a friend and managed to have a good time....up until my high-school-drop-out-ex-boyfriend gate crashed the dance, drunk, and caused a kerfuffle. (And yes, dear reader, I married him! Needless to say he is now a very successful professional and I am no longer married to him).

But thanks to dear Kylie at Lucy Violet Vintage - I was able to re-live my high school dreams, cast away the nightmare past and feel like the bell of the ball in this, a pure silk tartan taffeta designer dress from the 80's that arrived as a sweet soft parcel in my letter box last week. Kylie found it at the op shop and remembered my comment about always wanting such a dress! What a gem, right?

Has anyone seen the episode of Bob's Burgers where Bob's wife encourages him to re-live his disastrous school dance experience  - where he was dumped by his date and didn't even go - by being chaperones at their daughters dance? And then to complete the experience his wife gets drunk on peach schnaps and pukes on him? Well, fortunately, my night out on the town in my high-school-dance-dream-dress was nothing like that.

In fact, I wore it to see Dolly Parton in concert! She was a shining super star that night who warmed the crowd with her generous  angelic voice and stories of her hillbilly youth as one of 12 kids. And yes, I shed more than a few tears because she still manages to crack open my heart.


10 comments:

  1. Hahaha, Julianne. You're so funny. This post took me back in time to my disastrous high school dance when I got "all dolled up" in my yellow sweater and black satin skirt. I thought I looked beautiful and maybe I did, leaning against the wall and being a quite lovely "wall flower." I didn't spend the evening in the restroom but no one asked me to dance :( It's funny how we remember those days. I can just imagine you in your taffeta with your wild hairdo and, as you said, perfect now-a-days. I love Dolly Parton too.

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    1. Aww...Irene! Can't believe you were a wallflower - still being a lovely wallflower just means the boys were not that nice or smart enough to ask you to dance! We all need to start a "how to recover from your disastrous school dance" facebook support group!

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  2. Can't even begin to tell you how much I love this post, and that you eventually lived your taffeta dream with Dolly! What a dress. You look perfect!
    I was the girl in the tartan (drop-waisted!) taffeta dress at the Year 11 ball in the 80s, but mine was black & pink and I wore it with ska badges pinned on the bodice, man shoes and green 60s sunglasses INDOORS. The photo still makes me smile every time I look at it. A fright from head to toe, grinning like a mad woman.

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    1. drop wasited tartan taffeta in black and pink??? lordy pick me up off the floor! I would have LOVED that. I had green 60's sunglasses too - though not worn to the dance. I used to think I was cool like Paul Weller. Hee hee. Fortunately there are no photos from my school dance that I know of!

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  3. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
    You look fecking GORGEOUS!!!! LOVE that frock!
    And I must say, I am crazy for your description of what you wore to your Year 12 social-I would have wanted to be your friend!!!! I was just starting to want to look different then.I would have been proud to hang out with you! I wore a black frock of mine and my Mama's design, that Mama made, but can't remember what I did with my hair.....I think I had an undercut and a "rat's tail" !!! Ugh! It was a dull as dishwater event, if I remember rightly..........!
    DOLLY! Fecking jealous!
    XXX

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    1. Our dance was dull as dishwater too. In fact my ex boyfriend's drunken antics were probably the highlight! We would have rocked together as teenage friends, Helga!

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  4. Hi Julianne,
    it's funny - you say you'd want to be me (you wouldn't really - I was the biggest dag ever!) and
    17 year old me would want to be you...at least you had a bit of drama at your social, mine was boring and uneventful. No-one even asked me to dance :(
    I'm glad you like your 'new' tartan frock (I knew you would the second I saw it). It looks as beautiful on you as I thought it would x

    p.s. I have never watched Bob's Burgers, but Annabel does.

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    1. Kylie you are the sweetest and the best! Still can't quite believe you found this dress for me. It's beautiful and so lovely to wear. We were all such dags at 17 I guess but that photo of you and your friends at the dance...well you look like you are having the time of your life! Who needs boyfriends! My kids make me watch Bob's Burgers - it's pretty funny.

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  5. I cringe when I think of my Year 12 formal, but it's not because I looked terrible (although of course in retrospect, I looked absurd). I allowed my mother to buy me the most insanely expensive and inappropriate dress. As a result I was surrounded by gushing girls for half the evening and I can't even recall where my boyfriend was or what he did. He was probably cowering, or laughing with embarrassment. (We're still friends, so I'll ask him. Reluctantly.)
    My year 7 formal was another matter. I hand sewed the tiniest possible dresses out of a shiny pink 1960s curtain for myself and my best friend (And she still is!). A rectangle, with zips instead of shoulder seams, and elastic at the bottom. Very New Wave.
    Meanwhile -- you, young lady, look amaaaaaaazing in that taffeta dress! Va va voom! I hope Dolly noticed you. I would have, but I think that I must have been there on the second night. Dolly was fantastic. The word 'legend' is over-used, but I kept thinking that as I was watching her: that voice, those melodies, flirtatious lyrics and all the different instruments! Wow.

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    1. Ooh I was there on the second night too - and yep. She's a legend. A super star. The real thing! Amazing. P.s. where are the photos of the shiny pink new wave dresses? reckon you should be whipping them up for the next finders keepers!!

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