I found my style in my aunt's attic. She hoarded all her '60s

The words of Roisin Murphy—“I found my style in my aunt's attic. She hoarded all her '60s clothes there, along with the tiaras she'd won as a beauty queen, and I'd steal her wedding dress to wear around town.”—speak of the eternal cycle of inheritance, imagination, and transformation. In this memory lies a powerful truth: the attic, filled with relics of another’s life, became not a place of dust, but a treasure-house of identity. The past clothed the present, and from garments once bound to one woman’s story arose the birth of another’s self-expression.

The wedding dress, once a sacred garment of vows, here became a costume of exploration. To wear it around town was to strip it of its solemnity and reforge it into a banner of individuality. This act is rebellious, yet it is also deeply creative, showing how meaning is never fixed but ever reshaped by those who dare to reinterpret. What was once a symbol of marital union became a symbol of artistic freedom.

The mention of ‘60s clothes and beauty queen tiaras reveals how the artifacts of an earlier era can inspire those who come after. Just as the ancients found wisdom in scrolls hidden in temples, so too did Murphy find her artistic fire in garments hidden in an attic. The spirit of a bygone age—the boldness, the glamour, the defiance—was reborn through her, showing that creativity is often the resurrection of what has been forgotten.

History recalls the Renaissance, when Europe rediscovered the art and wisdom of Greece and Rome from manuscripts long buried in monasteries. From these forgotten treasures sprang an age of beauty and genius. In the same way, Murphy’s style emerged not from a blank slate, but from a reclamation of what had been left behind. Her aunt’s treasures became her inheritance, and through them, her identity was forged.

Therefore, O listener, learn this: inspiration often hides in the forgotten corners, waiting to be claimed by those bold enough to see beyond dust and decay. The wedding dress, the tiara, the relics of another’s triumphs—these are not merely remnants, but seeds that can sprout anew in the soil of imagination. Let us honor the past not by sealing it away, but by wearing it, shaping it, and breathing into it new life, as Roisin Murphy did when she found her style in the attic.