mrsamericanmade:

This is the story of an outfit.

I don’t know if it was American-made or not. I am guessing it came from Europe. But it is the story of garments that lived a long and rich life, as well-made clothing should.

FIrst, the outfit was my grandmother’s. She is pictured above at the airport in Cuba, around 1957, always well-dressed and looking very excited to travel somewhere far and exotic. She wore the dress many times before she gave it to her daughter-in-law, my mom, for a special occasion in Miami. My mother made me a blue dress for that day to coordinate with hers, with sleeves and collar of a fabric very similar to that of the dress, as seen in the center picture.

Then came my turn and I inherited the outfit when I was fifteen and could finally fit into it. (I tried it on many times before, waiting.) I first wore it to a party in 1979, right after my braces came off. Happy day. And I continued to wear the dress and the jacket in various combinations until one day I decided to dye it a different color (blue, of course). Sadly, the dress did not survive my experiment, but at least these lovely photos and memories did. : )

I was inspired to find these photos after answering the questionnaire from Terry’s Two Cents, in this interview here.