Under the influence

Absolutely Fabulous is on our screens here in Oz at the moment and as soon as I hear the theme song I am cast back to the early - mid 1990s and reminded of how scandalous and ground-breaking it was when first released.  I am also reminded of how much I admired Jennifer Saunders’ Edina, who I believed (had she been a real person) was never as vacuous, vague or unattractive, as Saunders tried to make her.

In fact, I aspired to be her.  I envied her frivolity and loved her look, and as I was in my 20s at the time, I suspect her fashions would have been more forgivable on me.  Had my (then-dyed brown) hair been long enough I would have been sporting a brown spiral perm myself.

Like so many others, I have to admit to a tendency to being easily swayed when it comes to fashion or fads.

My first memory of this affliction is tied to Young Talent Time, a childhood favourite.  In my defence, in the 1970s TV viewing options were limited in regional Australia, so frankly any show catering for kids was a bonus.  At the time my parents wouldn’t let me have long boots, but it wasn’t long before I realised that my YTT faves, Sally Boyden and Karen Knowles, were in fact wearing white sandshoes and long white socks – to look like boots (or perhaps just for comfort).  I realised I could do that.  And often did.

As I was finishing primary school, Grease hit our shores and screens.  After a brief flirtation as ‘nice Sandy’ (blonde bob a la Sandra Dee), I somehow convinced my mother to let me have a perm and suddenly – at 12 or 13 years of age – I was bad Sandy, sans the black lycra ‘You’re The One That I Want’ outfit.  Of course.

[caption id="attachment_463" align="alignright" width="210" caption="Me back in the day - a Princess Di wannabe (had the curling wand working overtime!)"][/caption]

Princess Di was probably my next fashion idol and like many others throughout the world I cloned her hairdo.  For a while anyway.

Olivia Newton John’s Physical debuted the same year and I diligently added a headband to my Diana cut and wore leggings and layers of ill-fitting sweatshirts.

By the time I finished high school in the mid 1980s I was channelling a favourite Dolly magazine model and had a spiral perm to match.  WHAM had asked us to CHOOSE LIFE and although I didn’t have the t-shirt, I had my fair share of fluorescent clothing.

By the 1990s, I’d dyed my hair dark and put on more weight than I’d liked.  I bought my first pair of Doc Marten boots and flounced about in my Docs/baby doll dress combo.  Just like the girls in the original Beverly Hills 90210. (ie. The normal-sized Brenda, Kelly and Donna, not the skeletal lollipop-like ones in the remake!)

[caption id="attachment_464" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Louise Lombard as Evie in The House of Eliott"][/caption]

Then it was Ab Fab and Edina, as well as BBC’s House of Eliott.  Although desperate to emulate Edina (and in all honesty, who wouldn’t be?) I was entranced by Louise Lombard’s Evie – and frankly in the early 1990s my hair was more suited to an Evie do rather than an Edina do.  So I attempted the clean sleek lines of the 1920s flapper.

Something happened after that and I found myself spurning the likes of Melrose Place and Friends and stoically avoided the Rachel ‘do’.  Or maybe I just grew up. In reality, I went to live in Africa and Asia and came home less inclined to follow the crowd.

Although… I must admit, while I’m now unlikely to be as committed to mimicking the style of others, I am – on occasions – still prone to falling prey to the influence of others.  I have a hair appointment tomorrow, and although I know my hairdresser doesn’t ‘do’ perms I am thinking of taking a picture of Scarlett Johansson’s tousled OSCARS bob to see what they can do – and hope I don’t get laughed out of the salon!