Monday, February 14th. No Need to Say Goodbye. A house full of orphans, prematurely spinster-ish oldest sister, Aldo and Louise go to Scotland (which, if you look on a map, is the
opposite direction from Brighton).
 |
My husband's grandmother wouldn't
be caught dead in this awful dress. |
Thursday, February 17th. Never the Time and the Place. Voted
'Worst Dress Worn on the Cover of a Neels. Ever' by The Founding Bettys. The part of the pompous fiancee is played by Malcolm...who is ditched rather abruptly.
I must have selective amnesia because I would have sworn I'd never seen that cover before in my life. Went to the bookshelf and there it was!
ReplyDelete(I have some books in the Mills & Boon edition because I was in the UK when they were published over there, and some other books I have in the "Best of Betty Neels" reprints.)
And you just know she wearing ratty old slippers with that housecoat as well...
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteYes! That dress looks like something a cat hacked up. I have that edition, too. And this is where those charming book covers come in so handy!!
The caption for this cover should read something like: Save me Julius! Malcolm's mother wants to teach me to sew horrible, ill-fitting, oversized sacks made out of hideous wrinkly fabric!
ReplyDeleteOr maybe: Josephine could finally believe that yes! Julius did love her. Because, frankly, no one but a man besotted with his beloved would ever touch that dress.
ReplyDeleteI do prefer the covers with faces (poor wardrobe choices aside). The "new" covers usually look so vague, like the artist gave up half way through the process. "Oh, screw it, I'll just put a row of trees here and it will probably work with the story...."
ReplyDeleteScary, scary thought... I have UNFORTUNATE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE that I have worn that dress, or one very like it, to my brother in law's wedding way back in the early nineties (I think it was passe even then!)
ReplyDeleteDoes it ever bother anyone when Betty dismisses "last year's dress"? "LAST year's dress"?!? I sometimes wear stuff from the last century--and I don't just mean my quirky-but-made-better-than-the-new-stuff vintage clothing.
ReplyDeleteBetty JoDee, can't say it "bothers" me so much as I do take note. I have a sweater that I wear (and get compliments on as it's still in nice condition) that is at least 25 years old. And, my two jersey dresses are more than 10 years old and I wear them still. The black one is my Funeral Dress. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhen I quit working (in an office) I had so many clothes and kept them for a couple of years afterward, until finally one day I looked at the jam-jumbled-mess that was my closet and said, "Umm...why?" I wore the same few (new!) outfits most times I leave the house and I'm famous for wearing nightshirts day in and day out if I don't go anywhere or don't plan on someone coming.
I called my niece (and they were always struggling for money and she had literally one nice outfit for church) and invited her to take anything and EVERYthing she wanted. She took two full garbage bags of clothes. And my closet it still too full. (Of course, getting two coats for Christmas doesn't help...)
Anyway - I think most of us past a certain age don't buy every fad fashion that comes out, instead buying basic stuff for the most part that can indeed span many years of wear. At least I do!
Perhaps when you're buying designer stuff it matters more if it's this or last year's?
me<><
You know, I think the fashion thing has changed in the last fifteen to twenty years. In The Great Betty's day, hem lines went up and down by the year, and styles as well... now it seems that there are so many styles in "fashion" at a given time, the term "last year's fashion" doesn't really mean much anymore.
ReplyDelete