My traveling dress
Sep. 6th, 2013 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beelikejI have one dress. Or rather: I had one dress. A couple of years ago my breasts got too big to fit in it and then I asked my mom to turn it into a wrap around skirt. A couple of weeks ago I tore a big hole in it but luckily there was still enough fabric left to fix it. Only a day after my mom sewed it back together I managed to rip it again, because the fabric has gotten so thin. :( I was curious to find out how old the dress was. While going through photos of many vacations, I got all nostalgic remembering how it had traveled all over the world with me. Let's take a trip down memory lane...
The earliest photo-evidence I could find was from 1988! My mom said that was the first year I had actually wanted to go clothes shopping with her;) What was so great about the dress was that it had massive pockets. I love pockets, since I never carry a purse. Below are all the photos I could find of the dress.
May 1988: look at young J! I'm 18 years old here and this is me baking pancakes on a final trip with classmates from highschool. After graduation our whole class went on a trip to a bungalowpark for a week of saying goodbyes.
July 1989: Me, my little brother and my mom in Paris (Tuileries Garden). My family always went to France on vacation (by car); this time I had traveled after them on my own by train, because I had (night)school to finish first.
August 12, 1994: San Diego! Photo taken by my other brother; we travelled through the USA together (by Greyhound bus). I remember occasionally wearing short jeans underneath my dress to keep valuables in;)
August 12, 1994: border between Tijuana and San Diego. (It was a visa-free entry back and forth for us, but I stepped into the borderpatrol office on the Mexican side and asked them to stamp my passport, which they did:)
July 20, 1995: looking at a massive painting of the Crucifixion of Jesus in the sleeping quarters of a women-only youthhostel in Venice, Italy. This hostel was run by nuns who had taken a vow of silence. Verycreepy interesting;)
July 22, 1995: Forum Romanum, Rome, Italy. I was traveling on my own all over Europe by train on an Interrail ticket. Too long a story to tell here, maybe I'll post a map later *g*
August 15, 1995: Luxembourg (city). Like I said: all over Europe; this was my final stop, after four weeks of traveling of which I spent about half the nights on trains!
August 30, 1996: Curaçao with Oscar, my BFF from Medschool. He did his medical internship in the hospital on this island in the Caribbean (just north of Venezuela and part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) and I came over to visit.
September 6, 1996: Okay, not the dress, but I had to include this photo of me in my BOTTOM underwear posing near the sign of The Bottom, actual capital of Saba, another far-away part of the Netherlands. Oscar and I flew there on our short trip around the three islands of the Lesser Antilles (Saba, Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin and Sint Eustatius). I climbed the only volcano of our Kingdom!
November 5, 1996: Prambanan temple, Java, Indonesia (near Yogyakarta) - photo taken once again by the other brother. He had worked in Australia for a year and was on his way back home. I met up with him on Bali and together we traveled through Indonesia for a couple of weeks. (We saw Komodo dragons!) This is near the end of our journey.
November 6, 1996: Borobudur, Java, Indonesia (near Yogyakarta). I'm touching the Buddha inside the stupa.
July 24, 1997: Santander, Spain. This was a camping trip with a studygroup; we'd put up our tents, had Spanish lessons in the morning and went exploring in the afternoon. We traveled in a small van through the north of Spain for two weeks. After that I split from the group to travel to Portugal and the south of Spain by train. I didn't remember much from the lessons but I was able to complain about lodging and food, so that's something I guess :-p
August 3, 1997: Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain. My goodness, I love Gaudi. The last photo of the intact dress!
August 4, 2001: Luxor, Egypt. The dress is now a wrap around skirt:)
August 4, 2001: Luxor, Egypt. Hey, I can also wear it as a head scarf! (And just like I did with the dress on earlier travels, I'd have a pair of short jeans underneath the skirt for valuables;)
August 3, 2013: 12 years after the picture above. Between then and now I have taken it with me on most of my travels, mostly doing service as an extra sheet.
September 6, 2013: I only wear it at home now, as a leisure skirt;) It's perfect for these ridiculously hot days we've been having this summer.
After that last tear, me and my mom fixed it one more time. Any smaller and I won't be able to wrap it around me anymore. I'm treasuring this piece of cloth and the memories it holds.
The end.
The earliest photo-evidence I could find was from 1988! My mom said that was the first year I had actually wanted to go clothes shopping with her;) What was so great about the dress was that it had massive pockets. I love pockets, since I never carry a purse. Below are all the photos I could find of the dress.
May 1988: look at young J! I'm 18 years old here and this is me baking pancakes on a final trip with classmates from highschool. After graduation our whole class went on a trip to a bungalowpark for a week of saying goodbyes.
July 1989: Me, my little brother and my mom in Paris (Tuileries Garden). My family always went to France on vacation (by car); this time I had traveled after them on my own by train, because I had (night)school to finish first.
August 12, 1994: San Diego! Photo taken by my other brother; we travelled through the USA together (by Greyhound bus). I remember occasionally wearing short jeans underneath my dress to keep valuables in;)
August 12, 1994: border between Tijuana and San Diego. (It was a visa-free entry back and forth for us, but I stepped into the borderpatrol office on the Mexican side and asked them to stamp my passport, which they did:)
July 20, 1995: looking at a massive painting of the Crucifixion of Jesus in the sleeping quarters of a women-only youthhostel in Venice, Italy. This hostel was run by nuns who had taken a vow of silence. Very
July 22, 1995: Forum Romanum, Rome, Italy. I was traveling on my own all over Europe by train on an Interrail ticket. Too long a story to tell here, maybe I'll post a map later *g*
August 15, 1995: Luxembourg (city). Like I said: all over Europe; this was my final stop, after four weeks of traveling of which I spent about half the nights on trains!
August 30, 1996: Curaçao with Oscar, my BFF from Medschool. He did his medical internship in the hospital on this island in the Caribbean (just north of Venezuela and part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) and I came over to visit.
September 6, 1996: Okay, not the dress, but I had to include this photo of me in my BOTTOM underwear posing near the sign of The Bottom, actual capital of Saba, another far-away part of the Netherlands. Oscar and I flew there on our short trip around the three islands of the Lesser Antilles (Saba, Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin and Sint Eustatius). I climbed the only volcano of our Kingdom!
November 5, 1996: Prambanan temple, Java, Indonesia (near Yogyakarta) - photo taken once again by the other brother. He had worked in Australia for a year and was on his way back home. I met up with him on Bali and together we traveled through Indonesia for a couple of weeks. (We saw Komodo dragons!) This is near the end of our journey.
November 6, 1996: Borobudur, Java, Indonesia (near Yogyakarta). I'm touching the Buddha inside the stupa.
July 24, 1997: Santander, Spain. This was a camping trip with a studygroup; we'd put up our tents, had Spanish lessons in the morning and went exploring in the afternoon. We traveled in a small van through the north of Spain for two weeks. After that I split from the group to travel to Portugal and the south of Spain by train. I didn't remember much from the lessons but I was able to complain about lodging and food, so that's something I guess :-p
August 3, 1997: Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain. My goodness, I love Gaudi. The last photo of the intact dress!
![](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/beelikej/7499883/775235/775235_original.jpg"")
August 4, 2001: Luxor, Egypt. The dress is now a wrap around skirt:)
August 4, 2001: Luxor, Egypt. Hey, I can also wear it as a head scarf! (And just like I did with the dress on earlier travels, I'd have a pair of short jeans underneath the skirt for valuables;)
August 3, 2013: 12 years after the picture above. Between then and now I have taken it with me on most of my travels, mostly doing service as an extra sheet.
September 6, 2013: I only wear it at home now, as a leisure skirt;) It's perfect for these ridiculously hot days we've been having this summer.
After that last tear, me and my mom fixed it one more time. Any smaller and I won't be able to wrap it around me anymore. I'm treasuring this piece of cloth and the memories it holds.
The end.
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no subject
Date: 2013-09-06 09:55 pm (UTC)I think it's awesome that you've been able to keep it and adapt it for current use. It is something to treasure - the memories are irreplaceable.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-06 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-06 10:57 pm (UTC)It's a travel journal all by itself. I don't blame you for keeping it.
kleine broertje
Date: 2013-09-07 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-07 07:17 am (UTC)<333
no subject
Date: 2013-09-07 03:41 pm (UTC)You ARE quite the world traveler, though. Go you! And you know, you MUST take that dress to Australia with you, even if only as a sheet. :)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-07 06:32 pm (UTC)As for the many travels: I blame the size of my country. I only need to travel two hours in any direction to get to the edge; it's just very tempting to check out what's beyond the borders;)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-07 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-07 06:36 pm (UTC)No matter how damaged that piece of cloth gets, I'll always safe it:)
Re: kleine broertje
Date: 2013-09-07 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-07 06:48 pm (UTC)I'd love to do a more general post about my travels! Will think about a fitting format with non-digital photos.
Most of my big trips were made in the days before the internet;)
The first online travelblog I did was in 2006 of my trip to Ecuador
no subject
Date: 2013-09-07 06:55 pm (UTC)Oh, the dress is definitely coming with me; I'll be sure to make pictures!
no subject
Date: 2013-09-08 09:15 am (UTC)(I also concur with wanting more travel posts, especially with this vague plan to go to Bali next year in my head, haha.)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-08 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-09 04:25 am (UTC)I once had a lucky dress. Two life changing nights in it. I thought I had outgrown the babydoll dress so I turned it into a shirt. Now the pieces are cut into a quilt, lol.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-13 10:24 am (UTC)I'll also link you to my trip to Ecuador then, even though I think you already browsed through that once (convenient picspamlinks at bottom!)
Okay, in my first nostalgic travelpost I will focus on Indonesia:)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-13 10:25 am (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2013-09-13 10:29 am (UTC)I'm not sure the fabric is sturdy enough for a bag, even with an extra layer, but I'll aks my mom, as she is the one that'll have to make if for me; I can only do repairs, nothing fancy. Great suggestion, thanks!
I love it when clothes get a second (or third) life:)