By Bess T. Chappas
For Coastal Senior

"Has that skirt come back into style?" she asked, looking at my black and white skirt with animal print design.

I was stunned for a moment. Was she being sincere or was it a snide commentary on my style of dress? I decided to give her the benefit or the doubt. "I'm not sure," I replied. "I bought this skirt on my trip to the Greek Islands several years ago and I resurrect it every once in a while because it's cool and comfortable."

"Oh, I have a similar one and I didn't know if I should wear it" she continued, foot in mouth. "Yours looks very nice. No one would know it is that old."

What makes us such a slave to fashion, I have no clue. We senior citizens should be smarter than that. We should not feel that we have to follow fashion trends. We should wear what we like and what is comfortable. We should have the confidence to create our own style. And in most instances I believe we do.

The fashion magazines say that skin is out and demure is in. Well, thank heaven for that. We have seen enough bulging belly buttons and flabby love handles to last a lifetime! I hope the new trend extends to the boys' style also. The guys are using one hand to hold up their pants as their crotch is hanging down to their knees. The other day at the mall, I wished one of the 'cool guys' would lose their britches and be embarrassed. A young man leaned over a counter and guess who was embarrassed? I thought I was looking at the Grand Canyon.

The first fad I remember was in the forties when we wore blue jeans with one leg rolled up higher than the other. Why we did that I don't remember. We wore jeans with penny loafers or saddle oxfords. I believe this was the first time denim jeans were worn as a fashion item. Before, denim was used strictly for work clothes.

Then there were the poodle skirts in the fifties, worn with crinolines underneath. I had bridesmaid dresses from my friends' weddings with yards and yards of tulle. I wore a hoop skirt underneath, Scarlett style. I kept those dresses in my attic until a few years ago when I sold my house and moved to a condo. I think they found another life as costumes.

Bell-bottom pants and ponchos were the rage in the sixties. Platform shoes where in. Platforms were great for short women but tall ones resembled ostriches. Platform shoes and ponchos seem to be making a come back.

In the seventies, skirts were short, really short. At that time, I was friendly with a neighbor who moved to Savannah from California. She was petite and had slim legs. She looked terrific in mini skirts. I wanted to hate here but she was too nice. She couldn't understand why I would not wear my skirts any shorter than a couple of inches above my knees. I had enough sense to know I didn't have the thighs for mini skirts.

When the bra dress became the rage, my neighbor promptly purchased one. In retrospect, it seems rather tame considering the amount of skin women are exposing today, but at the time the bra dress seemed quite daring.

Her ten year-old-son was scandalized. "Mother," he exclaimed, "Your breasts are showing." She took it back to the store. Sometimes, reason comes out of the mouths of babes.

The empire waistline was another mistake. It made all women look pregnant. The toreador pants were a fright, making skinny women look like storks and 'weight challenged' women look like sausages.

Before you men readers begin to snigger, let me remind you of the zoot suit (if you are old enough to remember the exaggerated shoulders and the pegged pants), the Nehru collar and the polyester leisure suit. So there!

I find it difficult to get rid of my old clothes. I suppose it is because they remind me of a particular event or a special time in my life. I know I will never wear the gold lame' dress I wore many years ago to a dance I attended with my husband, but I hangs in my closet as a reminder of the fun we used to have. The coat with the royal blue satin lining is much too heavy for Savannah winters, but it waits like a warm friend for the next Savannah snowfall, possibly eight or ten years down the road.

Since styles go 'retro' every 15 or so years, there is always something in my closet that resembles the current trend. Long dresses, short dresses, long-waisted or empire, raglan sleeves or fitted, bell bottoms or crop pants, I have them all in my closet. Luckily, I still wear the same size.

This doesn't mean I don't buy new clothes. I purchase at least one or two new outfits each season to add to my already bursting closets. By staying with certain colors, everything I own goes together.

Every once in a while, I have to bite the bullet and weed out clothes that scream 'way out of date' from my closet. I find this extremely painful. My only consolation is that someone else may buy them from Goodwill and enjoy them.

Like Sarah Jessica Parker on the TV show, 'Sex in the City', shoes are my passion. Even when I was young and couldn't afford it, I bought high-heeled strappy shoes. However, these days I stick to sensible flats.

After all, I don't want to fall and break a hip. I still have sexy high heels in my close just to look at.

So if you see me at the mall, looking good and almost in style, don't ask me if my outfit is new or 15 years old. I'll never tell!