When I was going through my closet over the xmas/new year period having a massively huge clean out I noticed that my clothes were changing. That my style was changing. Maybe it’s because I’m older and can afford nice things, or maybe it’s because those nice things are becoming less expensive, either way, I noticed that my tastes have changed.

So I thought I’d talk about my style over the last 40 years because just last year dresses I wore as a kid have come back around. Dresses with shirred bodices. Remember them? I wore them as a kid, 3 – 10 years of age or more as they were the trend in the 70s and 80s. Now, they’re back and I have added one to the collection. Adult size of course.

This got me thinking about all the fashion styles I’ve gone through and I’ve tried to document them here. It’s very hard to remember back over 40 years.

1974 – 1982: 1 – 8 years of age – shirred bodice dresses, thick wool cardigans, floral skirts that my mum made me, and tracksuits.

1983 – 1985: 9 – 11 years of age – zip up grey vest (reversible with pale pink) and matching short grey skirt (both from my sister). Plastic jelly sandals (they came back two years ago), coloured floral skirts in pink, yellow or blue that mum made. Poirot clown, E.T., choose life, and many other printed tshirts.

1986: 12 years of age – comic strip pants, multi coloured pants, Madonna tshirt, lace gloves, funky jewellery, silk ties, berets, plastic jelly sandals, coloured socks, funky jewellery. I was so freakin cool.

1987 – 1989: (high school) – 13 – 15 years of age – lots of blue as our uniform was blue and if you didn’t wear your uniform it was blue or grey. Outside of school it was bright coloured skirts, tops, shirts, dresses, smiley face tops and badges, ripped jeans, denim jackets with funky brooches. I love the late 80s!

1990 – 1995: 16 – 21 years of age – carried on wearing the coloured clothes I had until I grew out of them, then floral came to stay. I also wore a lot of bike shorts with big funky tshirts and tanks and started gaining blazers and waistcoats.

1996 – 2004: 22 – 30 years of age. My ex-brother-in-law was in a country western band and in Jan 1996 we got into line dancing, so lots of line dancing shirts in technicolour. More floral in blacks, navy, lots of dark coloured clothes came my way. Three piece business suits in navy, grey stripe and black, with coloured embroidered blouses and people always thought I worked in Target or Big W. I also went through a phase of coloured skivvies and matching polar fleece vests. Pink skivvy, pink vest. Blue skivvy, blue vest. Red skivvy, red vest, you get the picture. We also had lots of printed tshirts, many I still have, and I did a lot of fabric painting back then so I added glitter paint to many of them.

2005 – 2008: 31 – 34 years of age – lots of jeans and tshirts in winter, two piece tracksuits with sneakers. Around this time I started buying Millers clothes, so nice beaded tanks and matching coloured pants which I still have. Lots of op shop stuff as we used to go all the time, so pretty much anything I could find. Some funky tops if they were on sale in stores as clothes were still quite expensive then and I certainly couldn’t afford them.

I only have a few pieces left from this era so must have pretty much worn what I had and not really bought anything, unless it’s all gone back to the op shop or in the rag bag since.

2009: 35 years of age – bought a lot of clothes on eBay that year. Lots of funky looking printed and beaded tops, many I’ve shown and some I sold last year. The best piece, probably my girl jacket.

2010 – 2012: 36 – 38 years of age – not too many clothes in 2010 and 11, but for the odd gorgeous kimono here and there. 2012 was the year of funky tops from Kmart, my funky surf poncho and fur vest, and the era of printed embellished tops and tshirts that were low in price and I could afford.

2013 – 2015: 39 – 41 years of age – the era of kaftans and more embellished tops. 2013 saw the coming of $1 tops from Millers, gorgeous blouses and under tanks. 2014 saw in more tops than I’ve probably ever bought in my entire lifetime. I think I bought more clothes last year than ever before; all because the stores brought their prices down to get the people in the door. And they also started buying directly from factories in China to cut out the middle man.

I ended last year with two gorgeous kaftan dresses from ebay, plus more embellished tops, kaftan tops from Millers as well as two pieces from Missoni for Target Australia. A gorgeous teal and white top and a multi green knitted overcoat (all above).

So far, this year is more of the same, pretty kaftan tops are the must have for me right now and I’m hoping to get my hands on some Camilla kaftans and capes for my birthday in May. With my new year’s resolution to not buy black and only buy coloured clothes I love, it’s going to be hard to not buy everything I see. I’d consider a budget if I knew I could stick to it, but from previous experience I know I can’t. You never know when one piece will reach your budget limit or if you’ll even find anything at all to buy in that month. And what about your shoe budget? If that exceeded itself do you not buy clothes and go without?

Ugh, life is so bloody hard when you love pretty things. You just have to have them all.

And the funny thing is, while I’m late to the “my stars for 2015” party, my numerology guide says my number for the year is 7, (you add your birth day and month to 2015) and this year my power colour is “rainbow colours”. So I clearly have it right!