This old thing

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Yesterday I threw this old faithful on. It’s a shitty old hoodie that I purchased in 1996, from Target. Fancy hey? For whatever reason, with each clean out of the wardrobe, I cannot bring myself to throw it out. It’s frayed. The zipper is broken. It’s threadbare and doesn’t even keep me warm. And yet? It stays. I think it’s the oldest thing in my cupboard, second only to a Hawaii 82 t-shirt that my Dad bought from Hawaii, in, you guessed it, 1982.

It’s funny, the silly connections we get to objects. I have some old champagne bottles that follow me to every house. The champagne we had when we got engaged (Dom Perignon). The champagne we had when we bought out first house (Louis Roderer). They sit at the top of my wardrobe, getting dusty. Those old converse high tops that are ripped and useless that I got the day we left for our first big trip to Europe together. I’ve attached things to them, and for that reason I can’t let them go.

Who know’s what I attached to that shitty hoodie though. University? An attempt at being cool and having street style? FROM TARGET? I don’t know. But it’s not going anywhere.

What’s the oldest piece of clothing in your wardrobe?
Got any strange objects you can’t throw out?

Comments

  1. I have a pair of shorts that used to be jeans I got from my first boyfriend. At 16. So they are with me for 26 years now. It is literally falling apart but am keeping it out of pure vanity mixed with hope, because yes, I have been able to squeeze myself into it again, on and off. If I really EVER lose those last kilos again to be able to actually wear it, I will probably write their age on it with a marker to flaunt it. (just kidding, not dieting)

    • Actually, I have a pair of those jeans too. Forgot they were in the very bottom of the drawer. Every now and then (especially when I’ve lost some weight) I try them again. It’s torture!

  2. Your hoodie is red and everyone needs some red in their day. In the very very back of my wardrobe I have hidden a pair of white above the knee leather boots with a leopard skin flip over from the 80’s. They cost me a week’s wages back then. I will never wear them again and they will never come back into fashion. So they are just a reminder of the freedom of being 18 ….

  3. Emma Steendam says

    I just recently had a big wardrobe cull. So many things to the op shop, so cleansing, but still there were things that I can’t throw out, yet never wear. When I went to boarding school in year 10 my parents would give me $20 every week to spend, other girls had bottomless pits of allowances sent from home, I had to really make that $20 last, and boarders weren’t allowed to have after school jobs. My 15 year old country bumpkin self saw a pink, velvet blazer in Sportsgirl and of course had to have it, it was very Carrie Bradshaw and I thought screamed I-am-a-grown-up-in-Melbourne-now-woman-of-the-times. It was $120, I put it on laybuy and relentless scrimped and saved for MONTHS to pay it off. I wore it to death for several years, now it hangs in the back of my wardrobe and I simply couldn’t bear to give it away. I have visions of my daughters some day wearing it in all it’s vintage glory…

  4. Reannon Hope says

    SHUT UP! I have a red Target hoodie, a knitted kind of one, that I bought in 1999. It’s not fancy, just plain & boring, but has kept it shape remarkably well for it’s age ( much better than I’ve kept mine!). It’s a size 10. I am not a size 10 any more but it still fits…kinda.
    I remember wearing it to hospital when I was very early pregnant with my first bub. I was 20, my boyfriend ( now husband) was living in Sydney & I lived on the mid north coast. I was having ridiculously terrible stomach cramps so my flat mates boyfriend rushed me to hospital where one of my good friends met us. That night I though I was going to walk out of that place not pregnant anymore & was petrified. Those two friends made me laugh, held my hand & agreed with me when I said the nurse was being mean to me just because I told he I was scared of needles all night long until they were kicked out & I was wheeled off to a ward to spend the night in hospital- my first time in hospital ever!
    It wasn’t until I read your post & thought about my red hoodie & started writing that I realized why I keep it year in year out. I thought I was just a hoarder! I sort of am a hoarder but that’s a different story ๐Ÿ˜‰

  5. I have 2 t-shirts that I can not throw out. Rip off rip curl and quicksilver ones I purchased when I was 16 (I’m 33 now) in Bali! They barely fit and the necks are totally gone!

  6. I have a Duran Duran Tshirt that I saved all my pocket money for from 1985 – It came ALL the way from England. I love that shirt and I will never throw it away.Ever.

  7. Perfect wool pencil skirts from Country Road circa ’89. MADE IN AUSTRALIA. Look brand new. And they fit. Also Carla Zampatti wool leggings & silk pencil skirt from around same time (sometimes fit). Also made in Australia. Ahhh, they don’t make em like that anymore. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  8. I still have (and occasionally wear) the Esprit cardigan I purchased with my very first pay packet aged 15. The Johnny Dexter pants I bought with it died long ago ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. Lisa Mckenzie says

    I have a cream wool aran jumper My Mother in law knitted for my husband when he was 16,no we weren’t married then and it took her ages and when she had finished and presented it to him,he didn’t like the neckline so I took it off his hands and still wear it on freezing cold days.I look at it now and think it must have cost her a fortune to knit and a long time to make but it just gets better with age.

  10. Yes! I had a pair of black Converse sneakers from 1998 that saw me through many milestones. I finally threw them out last year, but not before buying a new grey pair in Melbourne with my husband and kids on our awesome road trip around Victoria- I’ve already made some great memories in the new ones.

  11. Susan McCarney says

    I still have my midnight blue and black velvet “Studebaker Hawke” dress bought by nanna and worn on my 40 th …..will never be given away. Too many memories for your mother….

  12. Something Gorgeous says

    I Still have the blue taffeta dress I wore for my 21st birthday in the 80s

  13. ahoy.jenni says

    I’ve got an opposite story, something I gave away ages ago and have never forgotten.
    I was going through a ‘lets get rid of everything stage, don’t hang onto old stuff cause its bad feng shui phase’ (I think I must have split with a boyfriend)
    Anyway, I gave away to Vinnies a ….wait for it….Collette Dinnigan skirt !!!
    I had bought it from her gorgeous little boutique in Paddington, before she became ridiculously unaffordable (mind you it was not cheap to me then). It was a cute little floral number with her label Collette Dinnigan clearly stitched on the waist band.
    Well, I still don’t like to think of it now!! This has been painful to write! I would love to still have it because it was so well made, beautiful fabric and just so nice! But I do often wonder about the person who one day found it in a Vinnies store and said OMG this is a Collette Dinnigan skirt !! And probably paid $2 for it ….

    • Oh no! I bet it had a good life, was well loved by whoever got it, and would have been THRILLED at the chance to get it! You passed that on…I bet it still lives on somewhere, I just know it! Thank you for sharing xxx

  14. Isn’t it nice to get the cozies out? I would say my oldest piece of clothing is a pair of 7 jeans. They are patched and kind of fragile by now but I’ve had them for 20+ years and wouldn’t be without them.

  15. I still have my emerald raw silk year 10 formal dress (worn with a choker… It was the early 90s). I think my right leg might fit into it now. Who knows maybe one of my girls will give it a run one day. Probably not!

  16. I have a couple of champagne bottles like you and your post just reminded me, I saw somewhere (I think on Etsy) that you can get them flattened and turned into little plates/platters. Isn’t that a cool idea, to turn something useless that you just can’t part with because of the memories, into something functional, with a story?

  17. Fi @ My Mummy Daze says

    We’re a funny bunch, aren’t we. I do the same. Fi xx

  18. Oldest thing in my robe is a pair of vintage Michael Jackson LA gear trainers from 1989. They are limited edition and I loved them so much as a kid. I even refused to let Mum hand me down them to my sister and brother, saying one day, my kids would wear them. I still have them, wrapped up in a sportsgirl bag. One day soon, Abi + Ted + Harriet will hopefully rock them too!

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