I've always felt that I was born in the wrong era. That instead of living the life of a baby boomer - through assassinations, Vietnam, Watergate, space shuttles and disco - I should have lived between the world wars.
And probably in England.
I would have loved being the mistress of a manor house in a time before television and computers, handling my correspondence at my writing table every morning and setting menus for the cook. A time when everyone dressed for dinner and made witty conversation in the library after.
But I just finished reading Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife by the late fashion maven Anne Fogarty, and I've changed my mind. Now the 1950s are looking very good to me.
The book was first published in 1959 - prime time in my mother's life - and has just been re-issued with an introduction by fashion writer Rosemary Feitelberg.
It is about the care and feeding of a woman's wardrobe so that she will always look great for her husband and her appearance will never reflect badly on him.
As a wife, she writes, you are "an appendage of your husband, Adam's rib that was separated from him to form woman and now spiritually return to his side."
Retro, dated and sexist, sure. But Fogarty's irrepressible enthusiasm for her subject makes this book a delight. It is a combination of fashion savvy and wifely advice, and it gives a pretty clear picture of what was expected of women in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
For those of us who had mothers who lived during the time of kid gloves, fur wraps, billowing petticoats and dressing up to go into town, reading this book is like waking from a half-remembered dream.
"Wife-dressing is many things," Fogarty begins. "An art. A science. A labor of love. A means of self-expression. And, above all, a contributing factor to a happy marriage."
Dress for everything, she advises, and dress appropriately. Never wear an aging cocktail dress to the office or a beat-up wool for housework. "Their original design was for something quite different and they will be uncomfortable as well as unattractive."
Fogarty, who brags lightly about her 18-inch waist, had rules that must be followed: Be relentless in weeding out of your wardrobe items that are out of style, and only shop for clothes when you are in the right mood or you will make poor choices.
