National Dress

National Dress

I may be in the minority in my love of national dress, hear is where it all began…………..

In the olden days before equality, but after some people burnt their bras in the 1960’s (mind you, after looking at the state of the underwear available its no wonder – I am talking pre- Agent Provocateur and T shirt bras, it was all pointy cones like witches hats and as scary as finding out your camping in a remote part of Wales where they still perform rituals “next year it will be you, you I tell you” etc…) anyway back to National Dress – of course the biggest showcase of the stuff was

Miss World – now for anyone born after 1980 I will explain…

Each country in the world had the opportunity to “showcase” what their regional judges had decided was the best the country had to offer, of course they said it wasn’t just based on looks and the winning girls had to be good ambassador for their country, which basically meant they wanted to “travel the world and look after disadvantaged children”. Sometimes it would come to light that the Miss World was actually a Mrs or had a child or even worse had some kind of a liaison with a judge, you know some interesting bit of scandel, anyway. They were really hoping to travel the world having a good time and hopefully gain from the situation in as many different ways as possible, and who can blame them? If that was the game then play it and win I say… well I say that now, at the time I would say


“When are they going to put on the outfits, when, when”,it was good old fashioned family viewing, Dads, Granddads everywhere stopped what they were doing to ogle at ladies in swimming costumes (to my mind it was all one pieces I don’t remember anything as shocking as a bikini) initially I think the format included each representative from each participating country walking out, this is before all the fashion magazines, the tabloids were still reporting real news and not Jordan/Peter, Brad/Angelina type stuff, we didn’t have cable TV in the UK yet so it really was a programme that the whole country ground to a standstill to watch, the clothes were nice to see,long flowing gowns and the girls were glamous whilst lying “oh we are just one big happy family, everyone is really friendly” of course competition is competition regardless of what the prize is, its dog eat dog (and actually I do remember some of the representatives weren’t as glamorous as we were expecting- I clearly remember my dad saying “well, if that’s the best they have to offer……….” He was really put out)

Anyway the national dress came next and I loved it… Ms Spain with her castonettes and flemenco dress, Miss Wales with her funny hat etc, Miss UK………… usually dressed as Britannia, I loved them all, I was less interested in the cozy section, so when I was tuning out and going back to my sticking and clueing (the name for anything creative I was making, usually just making a mess, my mum fed up and myself frustrated as nothing ever turned out the way it did on blue peter for those damn presenters, damn Valerie singleton, damn Sarah green with her “I’m using double sided sticky tape for Speed”.

In 2007 I turned 40, I have to say it was not something I was dreading, I embraced it, me and hubs had had a good think about something special we wanted to do that didn’t involve anyone else (I have given up the last 20 years bringing up pesky kids whose only mission is to nark me off continuously and keep me busy sorting out their mishaps) So no party for me, I had to get a new passport as my other one had run out, despite only being used twice Ibiza 1985 on an 18-30’s, and Yugoslavia in 1986, after that I didn’t travel any further than Rhyl, Llandudno or Blackpool, you see what happens when an egg gets fertilized unexpectedly?? Who knew? (mother nature actually and the doctor when I had to own up to having missed six, yes six periods)

Right so I saw the advert for “Canada maple leaf trail” and thought this is the one for me, hubs being a mega RUSH fan wanted to walk around Toronto and maybe recreate the "moving pictures" front cover, it was much fun and that’s what we did, packing for the trip was very difficult for me, but on the whole looking back I may have got a bit giddy, the day I wore the above outfit in Quebec, was very strange, it’s more French than France, it was warm and sunny, but still had snow stacked up at the sides a wonderful experience, I caused quite a stir and thought I had my fingers firmly on the pulse of fashion – well in my mind anyway.


The truth was all I needed was a pencil thin moustache/a string of onions round my neck and a beret at a jaunty angle, so all those years spent watching the national dress section on Miss World coupled with episodes of “Allo, Allo” were not wasted after all.


Bonjour


Mahoo