‘Yay!’ Sive beamed and clapped her hands excitedly.
‘And we’ll all be wearing vintage.’
‘Of course,’ Sive said. ‘It’s a pity Detta never got married. She’d be sure to have had a fabulous wedding dress and you could have worn it.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth,Sive realised how foolish they sounded. Mimi was marrying a major movie star and Rocco was loaded. She was probably thinking more along the lines of vintage Balmain or Chanel, not hand-me-downs from her great-aunt.
‘Oh, that would have been brilliant!’ Mimi said with real regret.
‘Do you have an idea of the style you’d like?’ Sive asked.
‘I have a few – thirties maybe or fifties. But I’d love genuine vintage, not just vintage-style.’
‘It’s probably going to be hard to find, then. You’d better start looking as soon as possible. I could help?’
‘You can be in charge of wardrobe, if you’d like,’ Mimi said, giving Sive a curious look. Could she tell she was feeling fragile and out of sorts? Sive hoped not. She hated to cause her sisters any concern. Anyway, it was just a passing mood, and she’d shake it off soon enough.
‘Ooh, I’d love to.’
‘I think Mum’s wedding dress is still up in the attic,’ Aoife said, her lips twitching. ‘You could wear that.’
‘You do love eighties fashion,’ Sive said with a mischievous smile.
‘Does it count as vintage, though?’ Mimi asked. ‘Anyway, it’s not quite the style I was thinking of. I mean, I’m sure it was bang on trend at the time…’
‘But the eighties weren’t kind to brides,’ Sive nodded sympathetically.
Aoife laughed. ‘I’m only joking. No one would expect you to wear that monstrosity – not even Mum.’
They fell silent for a moment, as if their light-hearted chatter had snagged on the same thought – that their mother wouldn’t be there to see get Mimi get married; their father wouldn’t get to walk her down the aisle … Sive’s eyes drifted to the framed photo on the sideboard of their parents on their wedding day.They looked so young, so happy, standing outside the church smiling for the camera, a breeze lifting their mother’s veil so it streamed out behind her. Her dress was a typical poofy eighties style, likely inspired by Princess Diana’s iconic gown. It was truly hideous … and yet her mother was the most beautiful bride Sive had ever seen.
‘It really is awful, isn’t it?’ she said, blinking tears from her eyes.
‘Horrible,’ Mimi agreed.
‘But she looks so lovely,’ Aoife said, echoing Sive’s thoughts. Jonathan put a hand over hers on the table, clasping it, and Rocco put an arm around Mimi’s shoulders consolingly.
‘Oh, what about granny’s dress, though?’ Sive leapt up as she had a spark of inspiration and went over to the sideboard. She took a box of old photographs from the cupboard and rummaged through it until she found the one she wanted.
‘It’s genuine fifties and the style would really suit you,’ she said, passing the photo to Mimi as she sat back down. It was a black and white image of their maternal grandmother on her wedding day. Her dress was ballerina-style with a sweetheart neckline, a nipped-in waist and a full tea-length skirt.
‘It’d be perfect!’ Mimi smiled. ‘Do we still have it, though?’
‘It’s probably in the attic,’ Aoife said, frowning. ‘If it survived our manhandling,’ she added with a wry smile. As children, it had been part of their dressing-up box, along with several of their mother’s old cocktail dresses.
‘Gosh, granny was tiny, though, wasn’t she? It was an okay fit when I was nine or ten, but I doubt it’d go near me now.’
‘I could alter it,’ Sive said. ‘If you’d like to wear it, that is. It’s just an idea.’
‘No, it’s exactly the sort of thing I had in mind. Plus it has sentimental value. I’d love to wear it.’ Mimi smiled down at the photograph.
‘And I could customise it any way you like – if you wanted to change the sleeves or the neckline or add beading or whatever.’
‘That would be great. But only if you wouldn’t mind?’ Mimi raised her eyebrows at Sive.
‘Are you kidding? You know how much I love an upcycling project.’
‘Don’t get too attached to the idea yet,’ Aoife said. ‘We have to see if we still have it first.’
‘I’ll go up to the attic tomorrow and have a root for it,’ Sive said.
