It’s all in the smell

It felt like an intense all over tingle ......steady ! 😆   It happened yesterday morning I was in the shop moving New YOSHI Bags into the window a woman closely passed by me wearing YSL Rive Guache 💥...in that moment I was transported back to 1979. A time when back combed and gelled hair reached unbelievable heights (sugar and water if you had no gel), shoes from Derbers and Ravel and clothes from Bus Stop and Wallis The seventies aroma permeated every great memory of music and fashion and friends. A time when you wouldn’t give a guy in a club (disco 😂😂😂) the time of day if he wasn’t wearing a suit jacket, he probably smelt of Blue Stratos. Then I got to thinking it’s not just perfume that ignites that high heeled Bananarama strut down memory lane.....I can very clearly remember the smell of VESTA Chow Mein (you may laugh but that meal came in a box !) it had noodles which you cooked in the chip pan to put on top of the re-hydrated ‘ taste of the Orient ‘ ...it was the future !  And considered to be a treat.

Maybe my memories of smells have lasted because hand on heart back then we had less of everything, so the impact and appreciation was greater. When I was ‘courting’ (remember that ?)  my now husband bought me an expensive framed leather bag -from a Majorcan bag shop when we were on holiday ...I loved the smell of it and whenever I smell leather in the shop I always remember that holiday and that happy feeling. Unfortunately the smell in Spanish leather shops is not always the leather but an aerosol that sprays ‘ leather smell ‘ ...honestly that’s true. There used to be a factory the other side of Manchester that produced the aerosols. I kept the bag which is now 37 years old and still love it, the inside lining still smells of Opium perfume......