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Clothing Triggers

BriarRose

BriarRose

Senior Registered
Has anyone had PL memories triggered by articles of clothing? In my case, I recently bought a muff. It didn't trigger memories per se, but I'd always wanted one. It feels weirdly normal to me, to walk around with both hands nestled in faux fur. People stare a little, but who cares? Anyone else?
 
Absolutely. In 1970, my family moved from Illinois to California. I was eleven years old and entering the sixth grade. Adjusting to the ways of California was a culture shock back then. The Mid-West and West coast were very different. School was easier in California, the weather warmer, and the clothes can only be described as…hippy.


My younger brothers often teased me about the scarf’s I wore in my hair. Not many people in our area wore them. To me they were comfortable and seemed natural to wear. Riding my horse near the vineyards at the rodeo grounds brought up strange feelings of home; although at the time I never understood why.


Later, my family thought it was strange when I began to wear big black boots through graduate school. After all, I was a mother of three living in a community that was considered Yuppie-ville; it just wasn’t the thing mothers in my area would wear.


I understand now why I wore scarves, why the vineyards felt like home, and why I started wearing big black boots. They were all unconscious expressions and awareness of who I once was. My last life time - in Italy WWI and WWII.
 
Deborah said:
Adjusting to the ways of California was a culture shock back then. The Mid-West and West coast were very different. School was easier in California, the weather warmer, and the clothes can only be described as…hippy.
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I think California is still a culture shock for people from the mid-west.
 
Great thread! :)


For me, I prefer the feeling of wearing clothes that would have been in fashion at least 150 years ago. I feel more comfortable in cloaks in stead of coats and leather boots instead of sneakers...I LOVE dressing in my 1800s reenacting clothes to play my fiddle for an event in a shop, in our old down town, and then walk around all the other shops & streets in my old clothes. Everyone looks curious at me, like I am so odd, but I don't feel odd at all! :laugh:
 
Lady, My daughter wears a jade-green velvet cape at every opportunity. I've long thought clothing should be what is appealing to us individually, not a boring 21st century "uniform". Actually, I wear a black woolen capelet with my muff. It feels really good.
 
My son is all about suites and ties and fedoras with dress shoes (he is 5 and has always wanted to dress this way since his first suite at 18 months.) I think the ties connect to WWII for him. For me I have always preferred cable knit sweaters and cargo pants and combat style boots as well as the newsboy type hats from the 30's/40's era that you would see many of the boys wearing in that time. Again a connection for me to that time period.
 
BriarRose, you wonder about clothing triggers. Well, as for myself, I have always had a big connection to buckskin clothing and leather. Go figure with my many past lives as some Native American and as a Mountain Man.


Also I have an Native American Dance Shawl which often at home drape around me when just sitting or doing some things. It gives me soooo much comfort that it is hard to explain this adequatetly in words. Again interesting as to my previous various Native American Past Lives.


Now I understand what you saying and do agree with what you said about Loving Clothes.


And Deborah, that must of been really interesting of living in the Midwest - Illinois and then moving to California. Can imagine the culture shock it must of been.
 
I've thought we should all wear what ever we want since the 70's. We have the wealth of thousands of years of clothing types and designs to choose from. Does anyone wonder if reincarnation is partially the reason why Halloween has become so popular for adults? My wedding dress was an interpretation of an Edwardian ball gown, but I love all the types of fashion mentioned in the posts. I think I've had at least one life as a Native American, a Zuni. There was nothing in the experience to help me date it, unfortunately. All I knew was that the cliff dwellings at Cottonwood Canyon in Arizona were long deserted. Native American clothing styles have the comfort factor, as far as I'm concerned.
 
Ever since I was a little girl I'd wanted a black leather jacket. When I finally got one, I felt my wardrobe was finally complete! As far as a memory goes, nothing in particular, but I once had a muff and it was a definite must-have. It just felt so right.
 
Shiftkitty said:
Ever since I was a little girl I'd wanted a black leather jacket. When I finally got one, I felt my wardrobe was finally complete!
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Like they wore in the 1950's and 60's? Bomber jackets from the 40's were brown, I think.
 
Black leather motorcycle jackets, like those most often associated with the 50's, have been worn for decades. The Army Air Corps jackets used in bombers and fighters were indeed brown. I have a bomber jacket, fleece lined and oh-so-comfy! But my black leather motorcycle jacket is something I do indeed tie to the 50's. (And yes, both have artwork!)
 
Shiftkitty said:
But my black leather motorcycle jacket is something I do indeed tie to the 50's. (And yes, both have artwork!)
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So, do you know what you past life connection to this is?
 
Yes, I do have some flickers of a life in the 50's that probably explains some of my stronger preferences in music and style. Heh, want to send me into a reverie? Play "Maybe" by the Chantels! But I don't have a memory where I specifically remember a leather jacket. I just felt that I had to have one of a particular cut. (I think it was called "Classic" by the leather shop I got it at.)


Earlier on I had thought that because "Happy Days" was on TV when I was little that the Fonz may have had something to do with it, but then I remembered wanting one before the show was on the air.
 
Shiftkitty said:
Yes, I do have some flickers of a life in the 50's that probably explains some of my stronger preferences in music and style. Earlier on I had thought that because "Happy Days" was on TV when I was little that the Fonz may have had something to do with it, but then I remembered wanting one before the show was on the air.
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Can I ask what year you were born in the current life? I was born in 1950 so I remember some of that. I watched "Happy Days" also. BTW, Ron Howard is 4 years younger than me. People my age as kids rode in cars without seat belts or air bags.
 
1967. I believe in my last life I punched my own ticket in 1966 rather than getting drafted. The ironic thing is that I had some mental issues that might have gotten me 4-F'ed.
 
ShiftKitty, during the Viet Nam War, I heard about young men shooting off their own "big " toes to cripple themselves, and avoid the draft. This may have been an urban legend (if we had those then). It didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. Did you have a WWII life? I've heard it posited that many baby boomers died in that war, and were determined to avoid serving in the military again. Not many boomers in California wore black leather jackets, but that may have been geographic. I grew up right on the So Cal coast, and we used to say "There is no life east of Sepulveda Blvd.", and that was at most, five miles inland. What a broad-minded group we were! :rolleyes:
 
No WW2 life that I remember as far as being American goes. I had one fleeting glimpse of a possible Eastern European escape as a civilian that may explain why I find it so important to be able to hide. All my life, when we moved into a new place the first thing I would do is find the out-of-the-way corners where I could create a hidey-hole and I would practice being as still as possible, beathing slowly and quietly. I think it helped me avoid a mass execution. I don't think I lived through the war. I may have died a couple of years after.
 
I was at a Renaissance fair, when my husband held up a cloak for me to try on. I thought it wasn't what I was looking for. The cut was all wrong, but my best friend asked me to try it on anyway, so I did. Instantly, the sounds of the fair faded, the booth I was in was gone, and I was somewhere else.


I was in a cabin. The room was dark, but I could see a well-used wooden table, benches, and a fireplace to my right. The door was open, letting in fresh air and light. I could see beautiful green rolling hills and a cloudless blue sky out the door. I was excited as I grabbed my basket and swirled on my cloak to rush out the door. It was a holiday of some sort, and I was about to spend the WHOLE DAY with a boy I was in love with.


Then, BOOM, the sounds of the Ren fair resumed and I was back in a booth, looking at myself in a mirror. Needless to say, I bought the cloak.
 
When I was teeny tiny, I'd scream if my mother tried to put pants on me. I would only tolerate dresses. The dressier the better. Eventually, she surrendered to my stubborn fashion sense and stopped buying pants entirely.


Now, as an adult, I STILL only feel comfortable in skirts and dresses. The dressier the better. And there is no clothing I feel most "myself" in than exquisite gowns (thankfully, in NYC, I can wear these to cocktail parties).


They've never triggered a specific memory, but more of an essence of who I am...both in present and past lives. I believe I my former life was that of a wealthy socialite in New York City in the 1920's.


I also believe I was part of Russian royalty, although I've been reluctant to explore specifics.


Perhaps fashion sense strongly influences us...at least, I hope so! If I can't wear 5" heels in my next life, I'll fling myself off a bridge and try again! :laugh:
 
angeleyess said:
I also believe I was part of Russian royalty, although I've been reluctant to explore specifics.
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That might be worth looking into. After the Russian/Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 many of the Russian royalty escaped and ended up in London and New York.
 
I'm with you on the high heels and dresses, Angeleyes. Telling me to dress up is like offering a wino a bottle.: angel I get teased about the high heels all the time. I could walk from California to Texas in them, and probably have. However, instead of being Russian royalty, I was more likely a "lady of the evening." : angel I call two inch heels my "hiking boots."
 
Yes, I definitely have clothing triggers, specifically any type of military uniform (all of the lives I remember so far have involved me being in the military in some function or another, until this life, that is.) Probably the strongest clothing trigger would be leather flight jackets, specifically WW2 era ones. I have always been attracted to clothing like that and have often sought out jackets in my own life that resemble that style, though I've never found one that quite lives up to the expectation in my mind or matches pictures.
 
BriarRose said:
I'm with you on the high heels and dresses, Angeleyes. Telling me to dress up is like offering a wino a bottle.: angel I get teased about the high heels all the time. I could walk from California to Texas in them, and probably have. However, instead of being Russian royalty, I was more likely a "lady of the evening." : angel I call two inch heels my "hiking boots."
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haha!! Brilliant! Perhaps we "worked" together, because I have a feeling I was a concubine long, loooonog ago (far before the Russian royalty incarnations). ;)


Perhaps I should attempt to explore these incarnations further...perhaps we've been wearing heels for the past 2000yrs. No wonder we're so skilled at it.
 
Hi Angeleyess, I've always felt sympathy for prostitutes, and never understood why they are so scorned. It seems like a legitimate business transaction to me, as long as all parties are adults, and consenting. I had to live in a "bad" neighborhood once, and would pass the "ladies" on the street. When I smiled at them, I got back smiles of heart-breaking sweetness in return. Mostly, I wanted to take the younger ones home, and give them bowls of hot soup. I think this may be because of my life as a civil war nurse and laundress. Her friends in military camps were mostly camp followers. When I lived in the "bad" neighborhood, I would occasionally get "overtures" as I walked home. I always laughed, and explained that I worked in a children's boutique. The gentlemen never seemed to believe me. It must have been the high heels! : angel: All the same, I never felt insulted. I just told them to go look for a legitimate relationship.
 
I might be able to help you understand why they're so scorned. In the old days, when it was legal, some "women" were as young as 12. One of the few things the progressives got right (IMO) was to end society's abuse of children (if not the private family's abuse of them). Medical issues abounded due a lack of knowledge of microbes, parasites, virii, as well, and many hookers spread diseases. To combine the two, it was a belief that one way to cure STDs was to have sex with a virgin, many of whom in that profession were severely underage. Some women were forced into it by circumstance, and it was seen by some as a form of slavery. In more modern times, it's a situation that feeds on itself. We don't like *****s because they bring in crime because they're run by criminals, and have to be because prostitution is illegal. These days many of them are criminals in their own right, drug-addicts who bring in the dealers, or else they're mules who shuffle the stuff from one pair of hands to the other.


I don't believe there is a single study that can prove that prostitution "leads men astray". If they're going to rent a hooker, they were going to step out anyway. I say legalize it, but keep it away from places where families would go. You know, like liquor shops, smoke shops, and porn shops are supposed to be a certain distance from schools, etc. You can't make sex illegal.


(Hmm, interesting cencorship there. The disparaging term "hooker" is okay, but the classic name of the profession, which rhymes with "bores", isn't?)
 
I am familiar and intrigued with the short-clothes, tunics and cravats of the 18th century. As a five year old I was given a pair of pants, which buttoned on my right waist down to my hip and also buttoned just below the knee, which I wore in a play and I kept them and wore them until they no longer fit. The draw to colonial america was then and still is quite powerful for me.
 
I've always loved wearing hats from many different eras, but my favorite was a plaid, Scottish-looking cap I bought in Paris when I was a teenager. I know from photos that I was wearing it when I had a "deja-vu" experience at Versailles. I subsequently wore it on travels all throughout Europe, including Scotland! :laugh: I must have looked pretty silly to the Scots with my jean jacket, tennis shoes and a plaid Scottish cap with a feathered brooch on it.


Speaking of brooches, I've always loved them, and often wore them on jackets almost like war decorations. And though I hate high-heels and hardly ever wear them, I've always had a love affair with boots.
 
I agree that all parties involved should be adults, ShiftKitty. I agree the " oldest profession" should be legal. I agree that it should be regulated. I'm just too old to waste the rest of my life on scorn. Wasted too much time on that already!
 
I wouldn't call it a waste of perfectly good scorn if they're picking up tricks in front of your house and taking them to the alley behind your house. Legalize it and get it out of my front yard already! :D


Of course, even in Nevada there's still illegal prostitution going on.
 
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