A lifetime of memories

Have just been given this wonderful book by a dear friend.

Description taken from the Harper Collins website

Charlotte Smith has had more than her fair share of fabulous dresses and adventures. Born in Hong Kong and raised in the United States, she lived life to the full in London, Paris and New York before falling in love with Australia and discovering she had inherited a priceless vintage clothing collection from her American Quaker godmother, Doris Darnell.

Then the boxes started arriving, with more than three thousand treasures dating from 1790 to 1995, from originals by Dior, Chanel and Balenciaga to a pioneer woman′s daintily mended best dress.

But when she unearthed her godmothers book of stories about the dresses and the women who wore them, the true value of what she had been bequeathed hit home. This wasn′t a mere collection of beautiful things, it was a collection of life. Women′s lives. Tiny snapshots of our joys and disappointments, our entrances and exits, triumphant and tragic.

This is a book for any woman who knows a dress can hold a lifetime of memories.

My own mother died recently and nothing evokes her memories like her clothes that I have hanging in my wardrobe. She was 82 and very stylish. She had the most beautiful hair and never missed her weekly hairdressing appointment. We loved talking clothes and watching old movies together while drooling over the amazing fashions. She still had her fantasy clothes and one particular dress I listed on Ebay in a moment of madness. Mum never wore it but loved the thought of wearing it. I didn't think it would sell as it wasn't getting many lookers and I thought 'great it's not going to go' but right at the end it sold. It was pretty hard folding that dress up and sending it off but I hope the buyer gets as much enjoyment out of it as my mother did.