What Do You Wish You Still Owned?
[ 26 July 2007 ]
Trends change, bodies grow, people move on — & clothing gets left behind. What items of clothing do you wish you still had?
I can think of a whole lot of things. I used to have Doc Marten boots printed with union jacks, & blue platform Skechers! (It was the Spice Girls era, you know.) I had a drawer full of jeans in every colour under the rainbow (black, white, red, green, purple…). I had red t-bar shoes & pretty party dresses. I had a blue dress with a square neckline & a black lacy top layer which I ADORED & so, so regret getting rid of. I owned crazy black platform goth boots & my father’s old yellow Porsche t-shirt (which I wore so much it literally fell to pieces).
Tell us a story about your most beloved, long lost piece of clothing!
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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I had a t-shirt that was big close-up of Donnie Wahlberg from New Kids on the Block… and it was the softst t-shirt I have ever owned (by the time I was old enough to be “over” New Kids.) And, it was slightly big then – which, equals perfect fit now. Plus, how funny? I’d love to wear a Donnie shirt everywhere! It would be ridiculous, and I would love it.
In middle school I had a yellow Goo Goo Dolls t-shirt that I wore every single day of the week for several months. I had to sneak it out the door under other shirts so my mum wouldn’t make me take it off, haha. I was utterly obsessed with the Goos then, and they still mean a lot to me. They were a defining part of my adolescence. I have no idea where it is now…mum probably snuck it out of the laundry and threw it away, haha. I’d take it out for a spin every now and then if I still had it.
I also miss a little pink shirt-and-pants ensemble that my mom painted for me when I was little. She painted a yellow sun on the right leg, and another big sun on the shirtfront, with the words ‘you are my sunshine’ under it. I wish I could have kept that for my future children, or just for nostalgia’s sake if it started falling apart.
union jack docs? I’ve ALWAYS wanted a pair of those.. I got rainbow toed docs instead.. I couldnt find jack ones.
UM.. when I was a preteen I owned this white and grey/blue pinstripe collared shirt.. I wore it ALL the time.. obviously I grew out of it, but I’ve been looking for one like it ever since, it was and remains to be my favourite shirt I’ve ever owned! I may or may not have worn longer than I should have, considering when it was buttoned up I couldnt move my arms because it was too tight across the chest, but thats embarrasing. :S I also had a pair of olive green extremely wide leg pants.. (ok I still have them, I never wear them, I’ve long grown out of them) that I wish I could wear still, they’re SO 90s but I love them.
my hand-me-down pez t-shirt….. it’s on its last thread.. I must save it! Apart from that I wish I could have saved my primary school pinny or cardi… It would have been a cute thing to pass on. I have to admit tho I bought an almost exact replica of my school cardi on American apparel a couple of weeks ago. I live in the thing.
I had canvas high-top Keds “booties” and I miss miss miss them! I wore them with big scrunchy socks and a jeans skirt. I have small feet so I thought they looked a-dor-able!
They sell leather versions now, but those suck!
I wish I could find a big deadstock inventory on e-bay or something.
Next you’ll need to ask about all the stuff we DON’T miss. I have some outfits that are doozies!
Luv
Poochie
http://shoedaydreams.blogspot.com/
From age four to age ten, I had the most amazing tees with random animals on them. I miss my glow in the dark chameleon shirt the most. I found a stylised embroidered octopus shirt a few years ago thrifting, but it’s not the same!
i had blue platform sketchers too!!!!
aahh they were so coolll but theyve been gone for years…i also had the comfiest best fitting jeans ever and they were signed by all kinds of bands [i wore them to bamboozle] i wore them like, every day hahaha…they’re completely falling apart now and i actually saved them in my drawer, i cant let them go. and when i was little i had all kinds of cool outfits. my favorite t-shirt was black with yellow glow in the dark smiley faces on it. i was actually shopping a few weeks ago and i found a white t-shirt with glow in the dark skulls and smileys on it!! i was really excieted.
wow, that was an essay.
i had those sneakers too!
they were blue suede and i LOVED them to death.
i mostly miss shoes i’ve owned but my feet just kept growing. i gave away this great button down shirt i had. it was cute and i had a lot of good memories happen while wearing it.
oh my god i LOVED donnie wahlberg!!! i can still sing all those new kids songs!!! my first ever concert was when i was 9 and it was the new kids in singapore. what brilliant memories!! :)
one piece of clothing i wish i still had was my junya watanabe skirt. i loved that skirt to death and one day it got stolen. long story, but i never got it back. that skirt was THE ONE. any other skirt after that was pretty good but just not good enough. nothing could match up to it. now it only lives in my memories and my photographs. boohoo.
Umm..I still have my Union Jack Docs. Love those things!
I’m really bad for not throwing away/getting rid of clothes, but I used to have a great vintage tunic shirt from the 60’s that was really beautiful and comfortable.
I’m not really a fashion girl and I guess my answer reflects this, but – what can I do? :)
The piece of clothing I wish I still owned (or at least the one I can think of right now, being 1:35 in the morning) is this awesome Mickey Mouse shirt I had when I was about six.
The coolest thing about it, though, was that when you turned it inside out, there was another pattern with Pluto, the dog! Like – two shirts in one :) And it was really, really soft and warm.
Mmm, that reminded me I should probably go to sleep now. Good night!
I once had a patchwork skirt that alternated yellow strips of silk with every other color you’ve ever seen in your life. Blues, magentas, greens, reds, all interspersed with yellow. Oh, I loved it. I found it in a thrift store, swooped it up and carried it to the register, without even trying it on. But the seams holding the silk together eventually disintegrated. I still miss that skirt, ten years later.
I had blue sparkly platform Sketchers too! I wish I still had my Pokemon shirts, because they were huge on me back in the day, so I know they’d fit now. I got rid of them when Pokemon became uncool and I cared what people thought. Now, they’re not quite as looked down upon, I’m more of a dork, plus I don’t care what people think any more. :)
-indian print cotton pants with all the colors you can imagine in them from when i was 5-6 years old…
-a skanky little plaid dress i bought on clearance and never wore out because of how skanky it was…and a black dress with red roses from when i was a freshman in highschool. got too big for me :(
-black slip-ons adorned with jewels and glitter made for me by my grandma one year when i asked for “diamonds and rubies” for christmas (hahaha, i guess i was a gold-digger from the start ;). the neighbors dog ended up getting ahold of them :(
-black raver pants with bright blue piping i got for $5.00 at a thrift store. they were beautiful and comfortable…damn me trying to fit in and throwing away all the neat pieces i picked up during the “gothic/eccentric” stage :(
-different pairs of underwear that have sadly passed on. i should just buy 3 or 4 of the same pair when i find ones i really like…
-little fish earrings from when i moved to IL.
fortunately, i have my favorite childhood t-shirt still :) it’s from the ’90’s and has these cats on it that say things like “ok-cool-whatever”. totally silly, but i love it & wear it around my house/to bed.
Ooh, also, it’s not an item of clothing, but I gave away all my children’s books to younger relatives. I miss Stellaluna especially. I’m trying to get it back before I leave for college!
I regret purging only a few things: a mustard 1960s faux-Aran sweater that belonged to my mother and two 1950s style day dresses that I bought for $5.00 (total). I really miss the sweater for it’s heirloom quality.
Glittery platform jelly shoes with a big pink heart on each front!
They were so hot.
Actually, now that I think of it they must have made me look like a six year old slag.
But they were still gorgeous.
OMG I LOVE LOVE LOVE STELLALUNA!!!
that book was the best…
i had this adorable sunflower dress that i totally hated when i was little and graffitied(?) with sharpie
i kinda wish i had it to dress my kid
and also have it just to have
(i obviously cant fit in it anymore)
plus i would love to use the fabric for patches
oh poo
now i want to buy sunflower fabric!! haha i cant spend anymore money on fabric i allready bought 6 scarves!
Love love,
B
I too had a New Kids T- Shirt and yes I had to buy another a few years ago ….oh its never the same as the ONE !!!
The one thing I wish I still had was my mustard poo pant waist coat jacket combo , super killer with side ponytail at around age 8…..I stil dream about this outfit to this day ; (
I used to have a light pink satin bomber jacket … aah the memory is so bittersweet.
Ah! My good old Reeses Peanut Butter Cups t-shirt that I got from Salvation Army when I was 15. I used to wear it with my pleated black skirt, striped knee socks, and combat boots…it eventually became so threadbare that I had to wear another t-shirt under it when I had it on. When I think of me walking down the old halls of high school, I’m always wearing that outfit.
I used to work in a shoe shop in the 90s and had heaps of awesome boots. They fell apart. Also my 90s bodysuit collection – also fell apart. And my grandfather’s navy pinstripe 3-piece suit – I LOVED the waistcoat and even now am all “What was I thinking getting rid of it?”
Tons of stuff has gone that I don’t miss at all, though. And I am totally telling my little sister about all your guys’ NKOTB nostalgia!
when I was young, I would wear the costumes my mother made me for Halloween for as long as I could. My favorite was the buckskin dress with fringe and embroidery that I wore when I wanted to be a native American. I would build tee-pees from tree branches, dance and chant as if I was at a pow-wow, greet others by saying “how”, collect any rocks that looked like arrowheads, and tried to convince my friends that I was half Indian.
Today, I still love to dress up as characters for no reason and see who I can entice to play along. I think if I could find that same dress in my size, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
The black leather jacket I found at a thrift shop for 15 dollars with all my skull pins on the lapel. I wore that jacket all through my 4 years of college until the sleeves literally fell off. I loved that jacket. *sniff. I still have some of my skull pins though ; )
STELLALUNA EFFING ROCKS. I still have the book and the stuffed animal!
I also had the blue platform sketchers, ha. I actually continued to wear them for a looong time, but the platform eventually caved in and I had to say goodbye. :(
Honestly, the only clothes I really miss are the ones I’ve merely seen in pictures- my mother’s and grandmother’s old wardrobes. After my grandfather remarried, his wife got rid of all the old clothes I was supposed to ‘inherit’. I come from a long line of fabulous fashionistas, and I would’ve adored anything I could’ve gotten a hold of. Especially since I’m so fond of vintage clothing!
Hence why I hardly ever part with pieces of my own wardrobe. And glad I am, because I find myself still consistently wearing clothes from high school!
I wish I still had my glitter platforms and my handpainted denim hotpants. Also miss my rose sterling silver ring that I threw symbolically in the Pacific ocean. Also miss my knee-length fitted Betsey Johnson denim jacket. I accidentally caught the sleeve on fire leaning over a candle.
I have a pretty bad habit of totally clean sweeping my closest at least one a year, which results in many items being donated to charity, given to friends, etc. So I can’t really pin down one item per se, although there were a pair of strapped nikes from the early-90s i would love to have back.
I had these jeans which looked incredible on me + which were hella patched because I wore them to shreds. I tried to turn them into a skirt but it didn’t work out + I had to throw them away. :(
Also, I miss my red high-top reeboks, + my red cons (which I bought with three weeks allowance in fifth grade, good luck spending that little now). Not that they would fit me anymore: that was elementary school.
I also had amazing dinosaur pajamas in preschool which I wore to shreds, but still look at fondly in old pictures (and there are quite a few pictures… I guess I never took those things off!)
i still have some of the clothes i loved from when i was younger, my first pair of real shoes (red, shiny, and with a buckle!) a nightie i wore everywhere, and some dungarees.
there are many pairs of shoes i miss, and also strangely i miss my school uniform.
my white, stiletto-heeled, Victorian-style lace boots… they were the shoes my mum wore for her wedding. she gave them to me when i was in middle school but i was too young to appreciate them. eventually she gave them to my grandma’s friend who was redoing her living room in a Victorian theme. they were absolutely beautiful and I wish I had them to wear now, additionally they’re from my mom’s wedding- they’re special!
i wish i appreciated beautiful things more as a kid…
I had a pair of black platform mary janes that I wore to school every single day for three years straight until they fell apart. I was so sad when that happened, I loved those shoes.
My friends older sister has a pair of union jack docs that I thought were the koolest boots ever.
I had this great pair of black skinny leg jeans a while ago (I can’t even remember where I got them!) but I wore them EVERYWHERE. They worked with pretty much everything and they were so comfy. And then I grew out of them. I was so shattered, Mum literally had to take them from my room when I wasn’t there and throw them out. :P
I miss my PUBIC HAIR! Thanks Gala. I finally did it, I waxed that stuff off. It hurt like the dickens and I wish I could have it back, After a recent split with my boyfriend, I thought I should liberate myself. Yeah, liberate myself with PAIN. But now I’m beach ready!
I also miss my pink sparkley jellies I had when I was 8. Cutest things on my feet ever.
I had this stussy tshirt with a magic 8 ball on it. Unfortunately, I grew, the shirt didn’t. It ended in tears.
Haha I think I still have those blue platform skechers you’re talking about :p
Oh I love all these stories! & I am stoked that I was not the only person with blue platform Skechers & union jack Doc Martens! It makes me feel like we were all stylish young kids in arms, haha!
Johanna — You sound like the coolest kid ever. Your story reminds me of Weetzie Bat!
Chesney, Bexxxx, Saxy — What is Stellaluna?! Can someone clue me in?!
Toni — Glitter platforms, YES!
Damsel — Drool! Black platform mary janes are wonderful, I have always wanted a pair. I was recently all agog about those popular mary janes with a stacked wooden heel, I don’t know if I’ll get them though!
Caitlin Marie — Aww, I’m sorry about the pain! & I think you’ll get used to it, but if not, it’ll grow back ;> Being beach ready at all times is a definite bonus, though!
Stellaluna is a kids story about a fruit bat who grew up with birds. Its pretty funny, and probably the reason why I ended up with a love for bats, aside from the fact that they get rid of all the bugs in my back yard. Hee.
I highly recommend it to anyone any age, but then, I love kids books, so maybe I’m biased. I like kids books, but not kids. Hmm. Quite a conundrum.
It’s got to be my navy and white horizontal striped mini dress from Esprit I had when i was ten. I used to wear it with big sneakers, that dress was awesome! I miss it.
i’ve never read stellaluna but it sounds so cute. i wish my mom never gave away all my enid blyton books though. i’ve only got a few now and they are precious.
i also had this gorgeous shirt dress with a ‘my little pony’ crest on the sleeve. i used to love my little ponies…. and i used to wear them with huge, maroon colored doc martens. haha! i was 8 and had an influential elder sister!
I miss my boots. My freshman year in college my mom found these Doc Martins and sent them to me. They were light green and glittery with pink and purple rainbows all over them. I already had a plain black pair of Docs that I laced up with Rainbow Bright laces. I miss those boots so much. Sometimes I’m tempted to go buy another pair instead of sensible sneakers like I always do. Every girl should have a pair of kick-ass boots.
My mom was a hippy back in the 70’s and I got a lot of hand-me-downs from her that I wish I’d kept. She gave me lots of long flowy patchwork skirts and faux fur boots that now I could picture making some killer outfits with.
I had a serious daydreaming problem as a child, most likely still do…, and I remember putting on these old dance recital costumes and sitting in my backyard on the swingset- not swinging- just sitting there daydreaming. I have no idea why the costumes where neccesary, and I must have looked quite odd sitting there in my tulle and spandex splendor, but I miss those days and those costumes.
Also miss this blue plaid shirt dress I had from Benneton when I was a freshman in High School. It was a little big on me then (but I had to have it) but would prob. fit like a dream now if it hadn’t gone missing:(
My green doc martens. I was little miss goth girl in high school, but for some reason I fell in love with a pair of shamrock green docs and wore them with absolutely EVERYTHING, black, red, victorian lacy numbers. And this was back in the late 80’s when they first came out with colors beyond black and oxblood. I even wore them to my high school graduation.
Second in line would be my old blundstone boots, which I know are probably lame and trite down under, but here in the states they’re fairly rare. God those blunnies were workhorses… I think they took 7 or 8 years to wear out. Soooo awesome for burning man, no laces, no fuss.
I love boots!
A loooong black overcoat that had super-pretty corset detailing at the back that I bought from Missdemeanor in Wellington aaaaaages ago. I gave it to a friend last year because I’d never really had the wardrobe to go with it. Silly, silly – I could totally rock that coat now!
Nevermind, though – I’m glad it has a good home (she looks STUNNING in it) and there will be other coats :-)
i agree with the Halloween costumes.
my mom made me halloween costumes until i was old enought to make them myself and i loved them. i’d wear them all the time, regardless of the season (dog costume + summer = a sweaty little kid), and even when they were, er, a few sizes too small. i really wish i had taken better care of them, so i’d still have them. they bring back great memories and to this day, Halloween is my favorite holiday. screw candy! i just want to dress up!
I had a pair of thigh-high fuschia suede boots when I was in college. I have no idea what happened to them. My only consolation is that my feet went up a 1/2 size after my first pregnancy so they wouldn’t fit me anymore.
I had these red, navy, and gold plaid bell-bottoms that were my dad’s from the 1970’s. They were amazing, and I used to wear them to high school all the time. Something possessed me to cut them off into capri pants though, and after I did that they were ruined and I just gave them away. Definitely wish I still had them; they were something special. *
i just remember something else i wish i still had..
i had the most adorable pair of mary-jane doc’s they were my school shoes for like 4 year (sniff sniff tear) i wish i still had then but they fell apart i tried to glue then back togeter and everything but i had worn the soles away…. i’m going to look so up on ebay now… come to think of it!
Good question! I miss my old map shirt. It was covered with a classic mercator projection — the Americas on the right front, Europe and Africa on the left, Asia and the Pacific on the back. Time zone clocks spread across the back yoke. Gah, I miss that shirt. I snagged it and tore a hole in the shirttail while sneaking out to see my outlaw boyfriend. Mom took that opportunity to throw it away before I could mend it.
Thanks for the question!
Weetzie Bat, of Witch Baby fame, your fictional idol? Gala Darling, I’m flattered!
oh boy, definitely my New Kid’s On The Block t-shirt! that thing was awesome and so so 80s. perhaps my old catholic school girl uniform, the skirt that is, so i could modify and alter it and make it better than ever. I’m a serious pack-rat though, and keep everythiiing. The only other thing would be my first pair of Chucks (Converse All-Stars), now they are like 6 years old and ripped to bits, but I wore them for four years, and they were charcoal gray and so broken in and comfy from adventures, concerts, life, those kicks had so much more meaning to them than just “shoe”, they were like a metaphor for life haha.
I had an amazing cream-colored T shirt that I wore when I was about 4-6 years old. It was from Texas (where I had never been), but it had 3 scampering armadillos on the front, with the caption “From out of the past came the thundering hooves…”
Pretty much the best shirt EVER. I would love to find a grown-up shirt just like it!
Claire, I want that t-shirt!! “thundering hooves”...hehehe.
My long black skirt; it was simply a straight black skit, with drawstring detail at the top, as well as my blue ‘hippy’ skirt. Both would have still fitted, and both would have rocked with boots.
My bright turquoise pointed stilettos! Bought from a cheap shop, but I loved them and wore them until they fell apart.
Hi saw your post on problogger and really agreed with all you had to say. I love the positive outlook. I am hoping to impart the same at my two blogs Smart not Cheap and One of a Kind Wisconsin
Well- I did just get reunited with my childhood Barbie in January, and I am not much of a fashion diva, but in my early twenties I lived in LoDo (lower downtown of Denver Colorado) and I had access to some wonderful shops Fashionation and Imi Jimi for two… I miss my old sterling silver rings most I guess, I used to wear a fistful of fun and goth rings everyday. I must be old now, sometimes I take my wedding rings off to type. Great blog- Michelle
Congrats on your problogger post. I wish I still had my bright blue ankle boots with gold trim but they fell to bits about 23 years ago.
my magic pink cowboy boots that i wore basically every day when i was a little lass. they had the glittery tassles and everything!
When I was very little, I used to have this black sweatshirt that had puss and boots on it. Puss was white and dressed all fancy and there were tons of little pink sparkle gems all over the front. I “saved” it because I loved it so much, but it got lost in the basement!
hay! i recently found your blog and I definitely love it to bits! v. interesting stuff! my favourite long lost piece of clothing is an dark olive green oversized cardigan that my favourite aunt left at our house while she was on her way to Oregon. It was old, smelled like hippies and its sleeves dangled over the tips of my fingers. Horrifyingly, one day I shrunk it in the wash. I thought for certain it had been destroyed, but it had only become a cute fitted sweater, even more perfect. I’m not sure what happened to it, but it mysteriously vanished as some things do.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/clochette/DSC01269.png
these sunglasses. that’s me aged two and a half. I would kill to still have those! though I doubt they’d fit my face, sixteen years after the fact.
proof though that I was a very hip child.
I miss my… not a lot, actually…
But about your skinnies – If you ever come to the Uk, places like TopShop and Primark do lots of coloured skinnies. :)
I had this lovely little cyan dress when I was about 6 or 7, with little tiny flowers on it, it was kind of a shirt dress. I wish I still had it because I could use it as a really cute shirt now. It would’ve complemented my short hair :(
i miss my 1978 neil young concert t-shirt i stole from my mom that fit sooo perfect, and all my 1920’s velvet coats i inherited from my great aunt— i wore those to pieces, along with her 1960’s/70’s couture heels— i had like 100 pairs. i was the only family member that was her exact shoe and clothing size!
i miss my adorable saddle footie thing leggings from when i was little. i’d wear em with huge sweatshirts and my knock-off converse low tops. i had them in every single color, i swear!! and they weren’t those silly tight ones that they sell now, they were tight until the ankles, where they bunched. teehee, sometimes i even wore cute little legwarmers over them.
D: i want them back…