Accessory After The Fact

What defines the different stages in your life?  Transports you back in time whenever you think of it? Is it your hairstyle, clothes, perhaps the music you were listening to, or the people who you spent your time with? For me, it’s the accessories that I’ve owned.

Now, I’m about to run the risk of dating myself, but I’d like to share with you a rundown of the accessories that have shaped and defined every era in my life.

1. Gold, heart-shaped locket.
This was given to me by my godparents as a Christening gift in 1972 (there, I’ve said it), and I wore it most days until I was four. My mother kept a lock of my baby hair inside it, which stayed there until I was about three, and I saw a baby in a pusher who was quite bald. I figured that she needed the hair more than I did, so I prised the locket open…and you can guess the rest.

2. Black patent leather mary-janes.
These were my very first party shoes, bought for me at the age of about four. Over the years, I’ve had several more pairs of black patent mary-janes, and loved them all fiercely, and in fact, the patent mary-jane is still my party shoe of choice.

3. Heart-shaped enamel pendants.
Every Christmas, from about the age of five, to the age of around nine, I was given a heart shaped enamel pendant as part of my Christmas present from my grandmother and great aunt. Over the years, I had pale pink, blue, lavender, yellow and mint green, and to me, they were the height of feminine charm. They were always bought from Myer’s toy department, came on a gold chain, and had a tiny posy of roses painted on the front, and, to this day I cannot think about them without getting a bit nostalgic and choked up – they represent everything that was magical and special about my childhood. They no longer seem to be available, but this hasn’t stopped me hunting; Myer, country jewellers, out of the way toy shops, the Internet; my search knows no bounds (as my long-suffering husband will attest!).

4. Silver petal basket.
This was the very first handbag I owned that had been specifically chosen to match a particular outfit. It was 1978, I was the flowergirl at a wedding, which was thrill enough in itself, but then I got to keep the basket. For years after that wedding, I kept that basket looking shiny, and kept all my most precious, private trinkets in it.

5. Red glitter disco shoelaces.
The year was 1982, it was my tenth birthday, and I was the proud recipient of a pair of beautiful new white boot roller skates…and a pair of red glitter disco shoe laces that matched the red stoppers on them. When I wasn’t wearing the skates, I generally kept them somewhere where I could see them at all times, mainly so I could keep an eye on the laces.

6. Clown earrings.
In 1983, everybody who was anybody had a pair of clown earrings – they were kind of flat, and looked like they were made out of plastic jigsaw pieces. Mine were pink and white, and I wore them with my beloved ‘Bubblegum’ jeans (with ankle zips) and a big white T-shirt and wide hot pink belt.

7. Beach ball bangle.
I was about 13, and I bought a chunky white plastic bangle with primary coloured beach balls painted on it. It was the mid-eighties, and that bangle completely symbolises the fashions of the decade for me – puffball and ra-ra skirts, balloon dresses, drop-waist dresses, knickerbockers and summery, nautical style clothing.

8. Marquesite lyrebird brooch.
For my sixteenth birthday, my grandmother presented me with her marquesite lyrebird brooch and matching earrings.  I didn’t wear it too frequently then, but now, it is one of my most treasured items of jewellery.  I wear it when I want to feel composed, whenever a black jacket is called for, or just when I want to remember.

9. Enamel whirligig pendant.
It was 1991, and I was in the full grip of my 60’s mod-style phase when I came across my black and white enamel whirligig pendant. Worn with a short black shift, black and white diamond print tights, and cat’s eye sunglasses, I just thought I was the height of groovy cool.

10. Black cobweb shawl.
In 1995, I strolled into Seagulls on Acland St and bought a black cobweb shawl for $12.  Well, if I’d known then what I know now, I would have bought five of them! That shawl has been a lifesaver on so many occasions – it is the Summer equivalent of the black chenille cardigan that I bought in that same shop later that year. Every year, the shawl gets a tiny bit tattier, and a little more stretched, but I’ll be darning it until there’s nothing left to sew together!

11. Victorian style velvet choker.
I actually bought my Victorian style velvet choker in about 1990, and promptly forgot about it until 1997, when I became a portrait model – then it was rarely out of service. Featuring a black band, and a cameo decorated with silk ribbon roses in reds and pinks, this choker is a bit Victorian, a bit Moulin Rouge, a bit Regency, and completely fabulous. I only need to hold it in my hand to be instantly taken back to the sounds and smells of the scores of studios that I worked in.

12. Rose hair pins.
The year was 1998 and I was visiting the floristry wholesaler when I saw a bunch of red velvet roses that looked like they’d be easy to convert into hair pins – and I’ve never looked back. I have very long, very thick hair, and it’s a rare Summer’s day when I don’t pin it back with a silk flower, or stud my bouffant with roses.

13. Hair chopsticks.
I have to make a difficult confession here – I can’t actually successfully eat with chopsticks, but that’s never stopped me buying pair after pair.  Why? To pin in my hair, or course! I have plain pairs, beaded pairs, patterned pairs, embossed and jewelled pairs, pairs with Japanese style hanging beads on the end; I can never walk past them. In fact, being partial to the bouffant hair do (and oriental clothing), I have been known to go the full geisha – chopsticks, flowers, jewelled ornaments – you name it, if I can pin it into my hair, I will.

14. Beaded handbag with surprise addition.
For Christmas 2001, my lovely brother bought me a rich red satin beaded evening bag that I didn’t even realise he knew that I’d been coveting – and inside it was the Swiss army knife that I had also been yearning for. Every evening bag should have one.

15. Butterfly hair clip.
During the first long conversation I ever had with the man who would become my husband, for some bizarre reason, I mentioned my eighteen month long personal shopping crusade to find the perfect butterfly hair pin. A week later, I found it (thankyou, Hair Additions), and on that same day, he called – and we’ve been together ever since. After that fateful day, my collection of butterfly hair clips, brooches and other assorted items continues to grow – I wear them instead of an engagement ring, and for me, they will always symbolise the beginning of our life together.

16. Butterfly necklace.
Obviously, when my wedding rolled around in 2004, I needed a special piece of butterfly jewellery to wear. And for months, I hunted high and low. It had to be in pinks and reds, have a ’period’ look, and be quite elaborately jewelled. With three weeks until the wedding, and still no luck, I came to my senses (or lost them) and decided to make this necklace myself.  From that moment on, every spare moment was devoted to chasing jewelled butterflies, beads and findings around Melbourne. In the days leading up to the wedding, I strung beads, cut threads, glued findings, redesigned about five times, and finally finished the necklace about an hour before I was due to leave for the ceremony.

17. Patchwork purse.
If I had to choose an accessory that really sums up my present life, it’s my red, pink, patterned and patent patchwork purse. It’s the classic accessory story – I was out shopping for a mortar and pestle, and happened to come across a purse which reminded me of a bag that I longed for, but never actually owned. The purse cost about six times my standard purse budget, and ten times what I had allocated to spend on the mortar and pestle, but, when it’s love, it’s love. And we’re very happy, thankyou.