Marlene Tolley – The Fashion Shows

Simon: Can you remember your first day there?

Marlene: I was very nervous I know that. But that’s really all I can remember about it being quite nerve wracking and then as I moved on a bit, every year they had Fashion Shows in different places. We used to come to Bembridge and I remember going to Tyne Hall and I think we went to another place in Bembridge. I can’t remember, but we used to do them in just different big places. I think we did one in the Town Hall at one time.

Simon: Ryde Town Hall.

Marlene: Yes. Just different places people would ask you for their … if they had a Garden Party or something like that, but I think they sold a lot of clothes through it.

Simon: So, someone holding a Garden Party would then say, “Can I have a Fashion Show?”

Marlene: I suppose so. I wasn’t anything to do with that of course, and Jones’s which was a Shoe Shop in Union Street, they used to let you have a pair of shoes to wear at the Show and afterwards if you wanted to buy them, you got them at a discount. But for somebody who only earnt 25 shillings a week couldn’t afford a pair of Jones’s shoes but it was a nice experience.

Simon: You did that did you? The modelling at the Show.

Marlene: Yeah.

Simon: Ok. And how did that come about?

Marlene: Well they just asked if you would do it, and they gave you 10 shillings, and that was good.

Simon: So, was it the thrill of dressing up or the thrill of the money that was appealing?

Marlene: The dressing up. Oh yes, ‘cos as young people you very rarely had anything new, and at 15, to be able to wear really top-class clothes. I don’t think you had your hair done, you did it yourself. It was none of that sort of thing, and makeup you just helped each other, not like today.

Simon: So, it was very exciting to be asked then.

Marlene: It was really, yes. This may not be recorded but I remember at Tyne Hall, these new shoes were of course very slippery, and we used to dress upstairs, come down the stairs out onto the … used to go round the swimming pool. They had a big swimming pool and I slipped from the top of the stairs to the bottom and from around the corner, came the very first black gentleman I’d seen, and he had a lot of gold teeth, and he bent down to pick me up and I was so frightened or disturbed shall I say. He picked me up and I went on but it did shake me up, both ways. Very kind but I think he was the first Waiter that lived around this area.

Simon: And so that experience and exposure to somebody you hadn’t seen before.

Marlene: Yes, it unnerved me but I’ve always remembered it and you do remember those sort of things don’t you really?

Simon: Right, and the kindness he showed towards you.

Marlene: Yes, oh very kind, but I can just remember those gold teeth and his lovely smile.

Simon: Did you see him around much again?

Marlene: No, ‘cos I think they virtually stayed in house, I don’t know. I really don’t know, ‘cos I didn’t live in Bembridge then you see, I still lived in Binstead.