Sunday Best: Wearing Stories

dress: vintage, tights: vintage, shoes: Target, earrings: Claire's

I love a good story. And sometimes, I think, clothing can tell a story. It might be that shirt with the ice cream stain from when you went out with that boy you thought you were in love with. It might be that dusty pair of Nikes that you ran your first major race in. Well, the clothes I wore to church today tell real grand stories. Stories that I love. Stories I love so much, that I will definitely keep this dress and pair of tights as long as I live. 

The dress belonged to my great grandma. When I was learning how to talk, I nicknamed her GG, so that's how I'll refer to her here. I feel pretty fortunate to even have been alive the same time as GG. I know many kids that didn't even live to know their grandparents, let alone great grandparents. And I'm proud to say, I took full advantage of it. My summers as a child were filled with mowing her lawn, drinking Pepsi with her on the patio, and sitting on her sofa asking her to tell me stories about her life. I probably drove her nuts. As I grew older, those summers were filled with visits to the nursing home, trying to cheer up a 90 year old lady with a 20 year old spirit. I feel like I had a pretty good relationship with GG. Good enough that she left me a few things to remember her by. One of them being this mustard colored dress. The dress was a graduation gift from her father at the time of the Great Depression. It is a treasure for sure. Yesterday was GG's 98th birthday. Even though she's no longer here, I wore her dress today to celebrate. 

Moving on to those knock-out blue tights. They are a gift from my grandma. She gave them to me a few months back and said, "Kelsey, I noticed you like vintage things. These tights are definitely vintage. So I hope you'll enjoy them." She then went on to tell me that my grandpa brought her back the tights when he went on his first business trip to New York. My grandpa wanted to surprise her with something nice so he paid a visit to Saks 5th Avenue. As a young married fellow, these tights were about the only thing he could afford from Saks. These tights will forever be a memento of my grandparents' love for each other. They are the best! 

Well, there is my story about stories about clothes. Did that sentence confuse you? Good. And here's a story for you: right now I'm wearing volleyball sweats from high school and a t-shirt from Taylor Swift's concert. See, clothes are chalk full of stories! So can I say that by being obsessed with clothes I'm being a good journalist? Yeah. . .that might be pushing it.