belgianwaffle

25 Years Too Late


Posted in: Cork, Ireland

When I was in school, the acme of cool in Cork was Benetton. There was one tiny Benetton outlet on Patrick Street and that was where all the cool girls went to get their cool scarves.

I never went in there myself because I was too scared of its stacked neat shelves and the trendy girls looking through them. Also, I think my mother would have been reluctant to fork out a fortune for a Benetton scarf when I could have got a perfectly nice one much more cheaply in Dunne’s.

The summer of first year in college, I went to Italy to work as an au pair and I was horrified to discover that all the shops in Italy boasted rows and rows of folded tops and t-shirts. I had to overcome my nervousness of this layout or not shop at all. The mother of the child I was minding was, to my complete astonishment, dismissive of Benetton – “I suppose it’s alright if you want something cheap and cheerful,” she said. Cheap? Obviously, she had never been to Dunne’s.

But the years passed and, now, increasingly, I find myself picking up things in Benetton – you know, it’s handy and, if not cheap, not exactly expensive either, and cheerful. Next year, I will be out of school 25 years. There may be some sort of reunion, I feel. I suppose all the cool girls are shopping in Prada now though.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stop giving me flashbacks to my childhood. Although, being at school in Scotland, we pronounced it BeNETtons, which took it down a peg or two. We also had to fold our jumpers as neatly as they were done in the shops (and there were inspections too) – someone, years later, watching me fold t-shirts asked me if I’d worked in a department store – so I was never intimidated by that aspect of it. Just the fact that all the cool kids wore it

  2. Benneton stuff never seems to fit me properly. Hurrah for Dunnes,which I miss terribly here in Bxls

  3. TM, you can fold, you can fold. Gasp of awe.

    Well, yes, I used to miss it too, C, but when you can have it whenever you want, you lose interest and pine for HEMA.

  4. Yes, I remember the same appeal – Benetton was like a designer label. Our only other options were Extrovert in Stephen’s Green shopping centre, or Dunnes. My worst ever buy was probably a calf-length (yes), bottle-green (yes), corduroy (yes, yes) skirt from Benetton that I wore for far longer than I should. Eek.