Dear Lorraine,
What a wonderful, wonderful picture on your site, of the double breasted school gabardine raincoat you are now selling. The lady looked absolutely fantastic and she had her top button fastened. I could look at that photograph for hours, a fastened top button is so beautiful. Would it be possible to put more school gabardine photographs on the site, but showing all the gabardine to illustrate the double breasted nature and showing on every gabardine a fastened belt and of course the fastened top button. How about black shiny Wellington boots for complete perfection?
I was interested in the recent letters from Deborah and Natalie. Both ladies, like me obviously have a love of wearing Wellington boots and I found it very exciting to read about them wearing their Wellingtons even when it was not raining, (but please do use that horrible term "Wellies", black shiny Wellingtons are so beautiful that they must be called by their correct name, Wellington boots. Also Deborah's love of correctly buttoned school gabardines was so obvious and it looks as though her niece now loves wearing gabardines also. I wonder, if like me they loved wearing their full school uniforms and if they would go out now dressed in school clothes. I think that it was Natalie who said that she liked my "stories", they are certainly not fiction. I always wear full school uniform and more often than not. my Wellingtons whenever I go out to work, evenings or weekends and also indoors in the evenings when I am at home. The blazer and gabardine are always worn ' with every button fastened, and the black shiny Wellingtons look superb.
I must admit to being surprised by mackintosh correction procedures for punishment as described in your section on correction. How can wearing a correctly buttoned raincoat with a possible souwester and Wellingtons be a punishment? Punishment for me would be to make me wear my school gabardines without fastening the top button, that would be unbearable and even the thought of it fills me with horror, also I would feel that I had been punished if I was not allowed to wear my full schoolgirl uniform of gymslip, blazer and gabardine, together with my Wellingtons. Was it Natalie who said that she would like to wear a souwester but didn't have the courage to do so, I think-that 1 would wear a souwester if I didn’t love-wearing my gabardine-with the hood up. Maybe one day I will find a souwester that will go over my hood!
Like Alison(?) (Fiona's niece), I always wore my blazer, gabardine and often my Wellingtons when I was at University. In fact there were about 10 to 12 girl students who wore their school blazers for lectures but I think that I was the only student to have the blazer buttoned correctly all the time. One of my mends Trish, who wore her school blazer, started to wear her gabardine after seeing me dressed in my mine, but I couldn't regard hers as a true schoolgirl uniform gabardine as it was single breasted and did not have a belt. She also used to wear the raincoat open all the time until on one occasion when she was going out with a very heavy cold, I insisted on fastening her buttons making sure that her collar was turned up and the top button fastened and I made her promise that the top button would remain fastened all night. After that evening Trish did wear her gabardine buttoned and many times I insisted on her top button being fastened, she didn't seem to mind. It was also nice to see that one of the young lecturers who travelled to College on a bike, almost constantly wearing a black shiny rubber mackintosh which she buttoned to her neck and with the storm tab fastened, and black shiny Wellingtons, together with a matching souwester when raining or cold. (Yes I am sure that I will wear a souwester in the near future). Underneath her mac, she wore, every day, mainly a black or navy blue schoolgirl blazer, which she always wore with just her top button fastened. I remember one tutorial with her when she was a little late. I was waiting outside her office dressed in my blazer with the 3 buttons fastened and my Wellingtons with my gabardine over my arm when she rushed up apologising for being late. We entered her office, she unbuttoned and then took off her mackintosh and sat there in front of me in her blazer, with her top button fastened, and her Wellingtons. She realised that I was not concentrating and I had to apologise and I blurted out that I couldn't take my eyes off her Wellingtons, they looked so fantastic. We had a very pleasant discussion about school clothes, and like me she said that she always loved wearing her school blazer and how she loved to wear it with the top button fastened because she did felt too tight with the three buttons fastened and she felt that a fastened top button looked very attractive. I said that I loved to have my blazer correctly fastened with the three buttons and that I would never ever leave a single button undone. She wore Wellingtons because, like me she felt they were smart, went well with a rubber mac and they were so practical. Why ruin a good pair of shoes on wet days!
I had my first job interview in the September after I graduated and Mum suggested that for my interview I wore a new navy blue school blazer, white blouse and navy blue skirt, together with a new navy blue gabardine. It was wonderful to relive some school memories on that morning when Mum helped me on with my blazer and gabardine and then fastened all my buttons like she used to, in order that I looked absolutely perfect. Since it was windy she made me put my hood up and with the possibility of rain I wore a new pair of shiny black Wellingtons. Somehow I felt really confident about the interview because I knew that I was dressed perfectly and as it happened the interview went very well. There were two posts available and both Fiona and I were offered the jobs. We are both still working with the same company but we are both now in senior positions. Both Fiona and J: discussed the clothes that we should wear for work and how the seven junior members of the staff should be dressed. We both agreed that either a suit or a school blazer with blouse and skirt (or blouse and traditional gymslip in my case) should be worn with every button being fastened on the jacket or blazer so that everybody looked so smart if we had to receive a member of the public. I was particularly pleased to see that two of the junior staff sometimes wore a school blazer, although one of the girls blazers is only the two button fastening type, which I feel is disappointing as school blazers should have the three buttons to fasten. Probably the girls kept their blazers unbuttoned at school like most schoolgirls nowadays, how standards of dress have fallen over the recent years. I really feel sorry for girls today who do not have the chance to wear a traditional schoolgirl uniform, as I am sure that a small number, like me, would love wearing their uniforms. In fact I am certain that most of the junior staff do not realize that. my gym slip and my gabardines are in fact school girl uniforms.
This winter, I started to travel to work in my schoolgirl gabardines with the hood up and my face cover buttoned across, which I mentioned in one of my previous letters to you. This was really fantastic to have the three buttons on each side of my hood so that that when the face cover is buttoned across, all you see are my eyes. I normally unbuttoned the face cover on the train, but always made a point of fastening the face cover at the end of the journey. I love wearing my gabardines like this rather than wearing a scarf, and they are admired by all the staff at work. On one cold day, Fiona had to go out to see a client and actually borrowed my gabardine and fastened the face cover. When she returned, although she felt that very self conscious, she admitted to really enjoying the occasion, and although she has not got a face cover herself, she recently purchased a riding mac which she now wears complete with the top button and the storm collar fastened. She looks great, particularly as she sometimes wears Wellingtons with her macs provided the weather is bad, but there is no way I am giving up my gabardines in favour of a riding or rubber mac.
I do hope your gabardines sell well. Maybe one day I will purchase one of your gabardines, but at the moment I still have almost twenty gabardines which are brand new and have never been worn so I have plenty in reserve and mum said that she met one of the people who supplied the school uniform shop where she used to work (earlier letter) and that they still had a small number of new gabardines in stock, which she could have for a very low price so as to clear their shelves. I will then probably have enough gabardines to last a lifetime, but good luck with your sales. It is becoming very difficult now to purchase a pair of shiny black Wellington boots, green being the common colour now together with the range of Hunter Wellingtons, fortunately I still find some small and old shoe shops that sell them when traveling around the country, and I am lucky that mum keeps her eyes open as well.
But, as mentioned before, please, please, please, more gabardine photographs.
Love
Abi
Abi
There's a gaberdine enthusiast wanting to let you have more pics.
Lorraine
