2024, History, Uncategorized

Retro Crochet

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The month before my junior year in high school, I spent an inordinate amount of time working on the outfit I would wear on the first day back.  (Yes, I know that doesn’t seem much like me now, but in high school I was still worrying about this kind of thing.)

I had a new pair of high-waisted, washed out, bell-bottomed jeans along with a wide white belt that just barely fit through the jean’s belt loops.  On top I had a brand new, bright white t-shirt, a nice one – not your average Hanes deal.  Then the coup-de-grace… a crocheted top, consisting of various colored and patterned granny squares.  (If you don’t know what a granny square is, check out the photo.)  The whole ensemble was finished off with a pair of wedgies, fairly high-heeled (well, at least for me).  I was the cat’s meow, if I do say so myself.  Oh, almost forgot the big round watch with the white strap!

Imagine my surprise when last week, 50+ years later, I looked up while watering out front to see one of the local high schoolers come walking down the block, wearing my outfit!!  Almost exactly the same – the high jeans, the high-heeled sandals and the sweater/vest made of crocheted granny squares over a white tee.  The only thing she was missing was the big watch; she even had a white belt.   I thought she looked really cute.

Crocheted granny squares becoming retro hadn’t hit my radar.  50 years seems a long time for something to become fashionable again.  I won’t be running out any time soon to find any crocheted items for my wardrobe and although I did once know how to crochet, it’s not a craft I’m interested in reviving these days.  Guess I’ll just have to content myself with the memory that once I was in fashion and that fashion has returned for a bit.  Wonder if in another fifty years granny squares will make yet another comeback?

Describe an outfit of yours that you were really proud of!

30 thoughts on “Retro Crochet”

  1. Proud?? That doesn’t really compute with me when it comes to clothing. All I’m shooting for is to not stand out and be gawked at, as well as not having my wife be embarrassed to be seen with me.

    The closest I’ve come to feeling proud of an outfit is perhaps my HS soccer uniform. We had a good team, and I was proud to wear the school colors—black and orange. Unfortunately, because I was the goaltender, I stood out! EEK! Why?

    Goalies have different jersey colors so they can be easily identified by the refs and players. Of course, my jersey was orange. The other players wore white. Oh well, it was only for three years. 🙂

    Chris in Owatonna

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  2. Oh, VS, you should have tackled her and told her you want your outfit back! Or shown her a photo of you in the outfit, if you have one – tho’ if you have one, you probably would have posted it, right?

    Husband’s mom crocheted each kid an afghan out of an unspeakable combination of wild colored granny squares. We still have ours somewhere.

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      1. No your grandmother wasn’t the only one. I had an aunt who made me a beautiful granny square Afghan when I first got married. I still have it and I love it. Interestingly enough, though YA does not care for it.

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        1. My comment was tongue-in-cheek. Grandma’s afghans were the ugliest creations ever. Although she was so accomplished in many areas, using color and design was not one of them. Furthermore, she viewed those afghans as a way to use up scraps of yarn, so they were chaotic looking. Any scrap from any person she knew who knitted or crocheted went to Grandma. And she crocheted many of them–one for every child and grandchild. I did not like them much, but that is probably obvious. Her quilts were much the same. It was a revelation to me when I finally saw a quilt that was beautiful.

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  3. i saw something the other day about blue jeans and a white shirt. and how edina kids wore that as their uniform these days. i wore that and a sports coat many days during my high school years. still do

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  4. Ah, and to answer the question… and I can’t believe I have no photo – same denim bell bottoms you speak of, and an off-white tunic with “angel” sleeves with inset rows of lace, wood buttons… I wore it everywhere for years, and can’t imagine why I didn’t hang onto it for sentimental reasons.

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I sewed an outfit that went to the County Fair 4H competition, which I later wore proudly. It was a miniskirt and matching top out of a red and navy blue plaid. I brought home a blue ribbon. The Judge said it would have achieved the Grand Champion prize if I had remembered to center the plaid pattern with the V-Neck, but I did not do that. But it looked great and I made it myself. I also kept a pair of hip-hugger hippie jeans that still reside in the Cedar Chest. It has hearts patched on the rear and a button fly. At this point in my life the waist might fit on one leg–I was such a skinny young woman. I was very proud to wear those with my wire rim hippie glasses and a hand-knitted poncho. Hair bandana was optional.

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  6. I wore exactly that to my Junior prom.
    But unlike Marty Robbins, I DID have a date. She was two years older than me and a freshman in college. A terrific dancer. Red dress. My classmates could not believe what they were seeing.

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  9. Back in 1982, the Marching band got new uniforms. THEY HAD A CAPE! They were ordered in 1981, and that fall we all wore matching red windbreakers. (I don’t know why we didn’t just wear the old uniforms one more year). But the new ones didn’t arrive until spring of ’82. I think we got to wear it once for the memorial day parade or something. The old uniform had SPATS! I sitll think they look pretty classy!

    The new uniform also came with a ‘concert band’ uniform. Black pants and jacket, and white button up shirt, with wide big ruffles with a black felt bow tie the size of a dinner plate. Still got it. I really liked that look. And then when I worked for Mestads Formal Wear that spring, I found a white tuxedo jacket with black trim down in the bamasement (outdated fashion storage!) and I had my senior picture taken in that tux. With my big hair back then, I looked like pretty hot stuff! :-))

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  10. I can’t recall any clothing of which I was particularly “proud”, but then that has never been my objective. As I’ve stated before, I’m quite happy to pass anonymously. It’s enough that I don’t appear, in my estimation, ridiculous.

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  12. My favorite outfit was very similar to BiR’s. Very worn, wide leg jeans with a white peasant style blouse. I had a pink peasant style blouse for awhile when I was young and I wore it with jeans almost constantly. Later I started putting an old suit coat from the Ragstock over it, with a colorful scarf left hanging. That was my look for a while.

    Yes, those crocheted granny square items have come roaring back. I keep up on crocheted stuff and trends. I found a cool spiral design made with two yarns at a time in a basic granny square pattern, and I made many of those in white and gold for the spiral and blue for the rest of it. It looks cosmic. I sewed them together for a bag. I still need to make the liner for the bag but that will require cutting and sewing and I’m not too keen on that.

    I’ve been considering making one of those vests too. I’ve even used that some floral pattern. Retro is fun. Look how it brings us back!

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  15. I had a pair of jeans that I patched over a number of years as they wore out. I collected bits of fabric with designs like flowers and windmills and bicycles and cats…I think I sewed the patches on with a straight stitch on a machine, but then chose a nice contrasting thread color and hand stitched a satin stitch border around each patch. I think I wore those jean till the original denim dissolved completely.

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      1. No, no pictures. This was in the early 70’s, and cameras were far fewer then. Also, as you remember, you had to pay extra to have more than one print made, so there wasn’t a lot of sharing of photos, I don’t have any pictures of myself from that era.

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