Fashion lessons from our grandmothers

Both my grandmothers were about the same height and build (plump in their older days) but their personal style was miles apart. My father’s mother is still with us – she wears denim jumpers and has an old-lady perm and sucks her teeth. We love her, but she is very nearly style-less. My mother’s mother died of breast cancer when I was in high school. She was elegant to the last, I think because she always dressed appropriately for the occasion, whether dressing up to go into the city (San Francisco in her case) or dressing down to garden or hike, and was always neat and well-groomed. She wore trousers, dresses and skirts but whatever she chose was always RIGHT in some way. The pictures of your Nonna remind me of her.

My maternal grandmother was born in 1923, we lost her in 2006. She was classic and elegant no matter what the occasion. The right accessories and jewelry to go with the most simple outfit, she always looked lovely.

Her signature perfume was Emeraude, and her signature lipstick was Revlon Fire and Ice. She had dark brown hair in her younger years which she always made the best of (we have thin hair in our family) by wearing rollers in the bottom to flip the ends either under, but most usually out. Jeweled hairclips, and in her later years silky scarves adorned her head.

She had tiny size 5 feet, and liked a small heel, but kept things sensible. She also ironed her underpants. :)

My grandmother was beautiful, but it had nothing to do with what she wore- that just made it easier to see who she was inside.

Ahh Grandma I miss you…..

Oh, I love this post, Sarai! My granma taught me to use what I have and to be creative. My granny taught me to invest in quality, classic pieces. They both taught me not only to be a lady, but to dress like one. I miss them both very much. :)

I feel particularly fortunate to have had a fashion mavin for a grandmother. Not always classy, but always stylish and distinct. My father’s mother passed away in 2007, and I am the only woman in the family small enough to have inherited her clothes. Which were aMAZing! I had my choice among home-sewn burgandy velvet evening dresses to half shirts and terry cloth pantsuits. I loved it!
My father said that she really relied upon her looks, and you could tell she valued her appearance a great deal. I love getting to celebrate her by bringing her style to the rest of the world.

My mother’s mom tends to dress like a nun these days (jumpers with turtlenecks), but I love to look at her style when young. She always took pride in her fine needlework too, so I have often hoped to learn her skills in this arena. Top that off with stylish great-aunts and sewing diva great-grandmothers, and I have my work cut out for me. :)

What a wonderful post! My Mom’s Mother always made her own clothes she was very stylish and everything matched, she lived in Egypt for a number of years and i remember seeing photos of her in tailored suits, in that heat! My Dads Mom lived in the middle of the country and would wear pretty floral dresses with her wellingtons :) I’m going to have a look through our old photos the next time i go to my Mom’s!

My grandmother on my mother’s side emigrated from Russia in the late 20’s and after some traveling, found asylum in Persia, now Iran. She met my grandfather, an American Solider, during the war, and she and her younger sister moved to the United States while my grandfather finished his tour of duty. My grandmother was a very wealthy woman in Persia and she had a lot of clothing made for her. When she moved to the United States she brought with her a bunch of fabric, I suppose she assumed she would have someone make her clothes here. I recently uncovered this fabric, and vowed to improve my sewing to the point when I would be good enough to feel comfortable using it.

She loved fashion and clothing and shoes, and she was the person who taught me that black and red and tan are an effortlessly chic combination, that you should never give someone a pocketbook without slipping a little money into it, that skincare matters, that it doesn’t look good if it doesn’t look good on YOU. I miss her.

what a lovely post!

My Grandma was german, she met my Irish Grandfather in Germany when she bumped into him on the street. He said she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and they were engaged within the week! In later years i remember her thick, heady perfume, rich fur coats and strings of coloured pearls. I can still remember the feeling of the fabric-covered buttons and tight satin material of her dresses on my face when she used to hug me so tightly i couldn’t breathe. Strangely though, she was totally opposed to makeup – she thought it was a form of deception!!!

My grandma sewed virtually everything. Her favorite color was purple, though she loved all jewel tones, and I remember a purple pantsuit in the 70’s which she’d made. When she was younger she was extremely stylish; later years she looked a lot like Barbara Bush and wore that deep blue-violet color that Mrs. Bush was often seen wearing. Her signature scent was L’Air du Temps, but she sometimes wore an inexpensive Tea Rose perfume, which she would spray on my pillow when I stayed overnight at her house because I liked it so much. I learned a lot of my sewing from her and now I wear Stella McCartney perfume because the scent is so reminiscent of that Tea Rose smell. I also have her trusty old Singer – all metal and it only does a straight stitch but I’ve never had a problem with it, and even used it to sew my wedding dress.

I have the wonderful chance that 3 of my grandparents are still alive and my sons know them. My dad’s mother (Didi) is a small but strong woman who raised 7 children. She was my second mother. She is 80 and still live in her house with my grandpa, gardening and cleaning her house. She always sewed her own clothes, but she is more practical than stylish. But when she go to church or other occasions, she dress up and wear pretty dress or trousers with scarf, gloves and hat, and ruby red lipstick! My mom’s mother is a fashionista, really! She buy expensive clothes, jewels, heels and bags. I never saw her with trousers before 3 years ago. She decided to buy some because she gets cold in winter. She always wear makeup and perfume and have her hair done each Saturday morning. Both are sources of inspiration for me and they are proud that I make my own clothes and wear vintage style, it remains them their young years.

Both my grandmothers were stylish in their own way and sewed their own clothes as they did not have much money. My father’s mother was quite the fashionista when she was young. When I was a child, my mother’s mother let me play with her old shoes, purses and costume jewelry from the 30’s and 40’s. She had a great pair of peep toe shoes that I loved to wear. I still love peep toes to this day. She gave me loads of fabric scraps which started me on my path to designing and sewing.

What I great post!

I’d have to say that, of my grandparents, my husband’s grandmother has the most influence on my style as of late. As my hubby put it, she was a “close horse” and was always in full make-up and jewelry even though she spent most of her time in the kitchen. I didn’t get to meet her until her Alzheimer’s had set in, so I didn’t get to know her very well. However, I have inherited some of her jewelry. I think it helped kick-start an awareness of how much accessories enhance an outfit. To my husband’s delight, I much more interested in jewelry now.

My grandmother passed on in the 70’s. I spent every weekend with her as I was the only girl, and I loved her and I miss her so much. She was French Canadian, always wore red, and regularly drove, alone, out to California to visit her sister. She was a seamstress and sewed intricate dresses for antique fashion dolls, for a rich collector. I remember crates – crates! – of vintage dresses, ribbons, and lace they would open, to use these beautiful materials for the doll dresses. To think of that bounty now, when it was considered at the time only useful for cutting up! (though the collector’s collection was worth well over a million dollars at the time). … My mother always told me to avoid the discount stores and spend a little more on good clothes (i.e., Macy’s) and ‘simple’ over fussy and gaudy. A basic simple pattern for a shift dress can be made from any material, 60’s psychedelic pucci print to herringbone tweed, to any color – basic black, purple, forest green with a silk rust color blouse…I’m 60 now and still enjoy sewing. I like finding nice things in the thrift store and fixing them up, altering them if need be, adding new buttons or trim. Learned that from my grandmother, too.

I wish I had been closer to both of my grandmothers growing up. My mother immigrated from Guatemala so I’ve only been able to see my maternal grandmother every few years when she comes to visit, but I love seeing old pictures of her when she was young. She wore beautiful full dresses and always had her thick hair nicely curled. I love her style, very feminine. I don’t know much about my paternal grandmother, unfortunately.

My grandma on my dads side sew, crotchet & knit for fun back in her old days, but she said when she was young all she wore was done by her (including her bras – she crotchet them) . She lived in Lima, Peru (South America) She taught me some sewing and a lot of knitting & crocheting. Every time I do any of these 3 things I feel her next to me, feeling proud of me doing it. Even though hardly ever I do something wearable.