Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Does anyone remember MaryRose?

There doesn't seem to be a photo of this fashion statement of the 90s, although while looking I have found photos of dresses and jackets made of Tyvek, the home insulation wrap, of all things! Perhaps too old to wear, and not old enough to be trendy. But I loved my two Mary Rose dresses. One was aqua and the other deep fuchsia. They were made of 50% cotton and 50% polyester in a heavy t-shirt knit type fabric, one-size fit all, big shoulder pads, and were incredibly comfortable. Somewhere I have a photo of me in the beautiful aqua colored MR taken one Easter when I was visiting my parents (I have dozens of photo albums, and increasingly can find nothing in any of them). The key to looking fabulous in a MaryRose was the accessories--huge scarves, enormous necklaces, and snarky belts. Ah, the memories. The colors changed according to the season, but the fabric was the same in all of them.

And mine probably won't go into my archive of old clothing (I have kept favorites from the 1950s-mid 1990s). When I was looking for storage space about 2 weeks ago, I pulled out a suitcase and found my two MaryRose dresses. I decided I wash them before I hung them for storage. The aqua dress was wet when I hung it up, and there was printing on the paper cover of the hanger, and it bled through. So I decided to run it through again with just a touch of Clorox in the water. The ink stain faded a bit, so I ran it through again, but forgot about it. About 24 hours later I remembered, and when I pulled it out, I could see that although the stain had lifted, so had some of the aqua. So now I have a ruined dress.

I'm thinking of crocheting it into a rug. I used to watch my mother do that. She'd cut material on the bias about 1" wide, roll it in a ball, and then in the evening while we did our school work or listened to the radio, she'd crochet an oval rug. They were quite pretty and very useful, easy to wash. Everything we wore as children--t-shirts, dresses, socks, blouses, even Mom's nylons--eventually saw a second life as a rag rug.

Cut up a MaryRose? Walk on it? On second thought, I think I'll just put it back in the suitcase.

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