Since I’m a February baby, I have no memory whatsoever of my first Easter. I think my first Easter “dress” was a christening gown. My dad was still Catholic, so I had to be baptized. But the gown was a family heirloom worn by a couple of generations, so crazy Catholicism aside, that’s a nice touch. The following Easter most of the pictures are of me hunting eggs in my pajamas, but there is one of me in a white and green plaid dress with my parents in front of our house in Newport, Rhode Island. I would say the stand out part of that picture, though, is my dad’s vest and my mom’s plaid jacket. So coming out of the 70s!
Fast forward a couple of years (age 4) to having a sister and the matching dresses begin! For some reason, I have a clear memory of these pastel striped dresses with bunny buttons on the bows in the corners of the collar. The dresses are long gone, but I still have at least one bow. Emry has worn it, and Ellyson probably will, too.
The next clear memory I have of Easter dresses are the ones below when I was 8, mine striped pink and Katey’s striped peach. You can’t tell in the pictures, but they were very 80ish with low waistlines on a slant. Thankfully, those dresses are long gone. (The couch is too!) Also note the corsages pinned to our dresses. Dad always bought his girls orchids to wear for corsages each Easter.
Easter 1989 is probably one of my most memorable Easters. We had moved from Tennessee to New Hampshire the previous December and on Easter it snowed. I remember thinking how “wicked” that was (to use a New England turn of phrase), but also feeling devastated because I was afraid it would mean I couldn’t wear my favorite Easter dress of all times and best shoes ever because they were too spring-like. But I did get to wear the white dress with tiny pink and yellow flowers and lots of lace, as well as the grey shoes with rhinestones. What more can one ask for in a fashion statement, right?
Apparently, though, fashion can be improved upon when one enters their teen years in the 90s. Not much more can be said of a jumper bordering on neon. Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t blend in at all with the pastel blue my sisters are wearing. I’m honestly not sure if I was trying to make some subtle teenage rebellious statement with this dress or not. I just know I wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole today!
After that, I don’t remember any particular Easter dresses. None were quite that bright again. I know I started into more skirts and tops in my later teens and early twenties. One or two I had created more with the multitude of friends weddings I needed to attend than Easter itself. And now I can’t remember the last time I had a dress or skirt sewn for Easter – probably sometime before I was married.
Remembering these dresses has been a fun walk down memory lane, but I will say there were a couple I didn’t show. Some pictures, especially of one’s awkward teen years, are better burned that shown. But at least I don’t have any lasting psychological damage done from having to wear an Easter hand-me-down. I have one sister who still brings up another sister’s “Mary-had-a-Little-Lamb” dress she had to wear one Easter. It’s something I don’t think she’ll ever get over.
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