But I Smile Anyway…

Having another go at Maggie and Laurens, Throwback Thursday challenge! This week it is Lauren at the helm!

This week’s prompt is: It’s a Formal Affair

This week, Lauren has gone for a slightly different approach and asked us to write about occasions where we had to dress up.

I am proposing a different way to write to the prompt today. Because we all had very diverse upbringings, I am going to list several reasons why you might get dressed up. Please feel free to add any occasion you had to get dressed up.

What were your special clothes like?  Did you get your hair done for the occasions? Was a mani-pedi part of the process? Were you instructed on how to behave? Did you have any input on the formal attire? Did you feel comfortable in your special outfit?

Please feel free to write about as many of the occasions you’d like to share. Pictures would be an awesome addition.

Lauren

Oh, my, dressing up was definitely a thing since we were constantly invited to different occasions and events, being from such a large family. I had an extensive collection of Indian outfits from a young age, (and still do!) which were pulled out to wear on any such occasion

Preparation as a child would have been washing face and hands, getting dressed, and then mum brushing my unruly mop of frizz into some semblance of tidiness, which was usually in two plaits!

As I got older, I would do my own hair, and have a go at simple makeup which was usually a bit of eyeliner and lipstick, with a spritz of Guerlain’s Samsara! That was my first grown-up perfume!

The addition of fancy jewellery and bangles was fun, too, and I would spend lots of time choosing my accessories!

But, despite all these times to get dolled up, for pre-wedding parties, weddings, receptions, birthday parties, dinners at different people’s homes, I longed for a different type of dressing up.

My school friends growing up, were all pretty much white, British girls, and we would go to each other’s birthday parties, wearing flouncy party dresses, and I’d have special ribbons in my hair.

Then they grew up. Or rather we all did, but I got a little left behind, seeing as they started getting dressed up to go out for the evenings, which was not something I was allowed to do.

I remember the first time I went to a ‘disco’ was on a school trip when we were 11 years old. I was so excited to wear my special rainbow dress and suede pixie boots! And to get dressed up with no mum!

When we all sat our GCSEs, that final year of formal school there was a Commemoration Ball, where the final year girls were invited, and you could bring a date (Well, no way was that going to happen!) and everyone was so excited about the ball dresses they were going to be wearing. I longed for that kind of princess look, which wasn’t going to happen…

But, at university, I was able to attend a couple of balls, and as I had grown up a bit by then, I was embracing my culture more, so to the first one, we all went in beautiful Indian outfits! And I did that for a few of them. At my Hubby Dearest’s end-of-year ball, I wore a more formal western dress, which sated my longing for a proper dress!

But I did get to look like a princess once, at least, on my own wedding day!

I wish I had the energy to find more photos but they are all in boxes and out of reach at the moment!

Dang! I missed it again yesterday and no doubt that will be the sign of things to come since I am back at school from Tuesday! Still, I hope you enjoyed it!