I had a dream, which made me wake up angry.

I was at a weekend retreat: an inn or a luxury hotel. I had brought suitcases full of clothes. Mostly rich old people were staying at the hotel/inn. I was there with my mother who is 63 years old (I’m thirty). In the downstairs of the facility there were rooms filled with luxury clothes. They were second-hand boutique garments; designer brands, glittering clothing, silk and wool and hand-made outfits.

(In my ”awake life” I am something of a collector of clothes. My best-friend says that I am the only person that she knows who has a personal relationship with my clothes i. e. I remeber what I wore on a particular day, ten years ago, I have different clothes for different moods etc. I’m not into brands, necessarily, I just enjoy colours and fabrics. I enjoy dressing up as different “types” to confuse the world and amuse myself. It is like everyday theatre. Maybe, I should add that my mother is a trained seamstress.)

In the dream I walked passed these rooms filled with clothes several times without going in. I saw a lot of women taking down hangers and looking at the clothes. It seemed to me that all these garments were things that I owned. I remember thinking; “God, she cannot possibly have given away my clothing to this second-hand sale without asking me, could she?” When a whole day had passed I walked into the second hand sale and saw a few of my own outfits in exclusive fabric still hanging there. A woman was haggling and wanting to buy one of my tops for nothing, although I knew how much it had originally cost. She turned to me, not knowing who I was and said; “-They want 11 kronor (which is a pittance) for this! I only want to pay 5 kronor (which is even less…).”

I walked up to my hotel room and there were both my suitcases, totally empty. I walked back to the clothes sale and my mother was there. I screamed at her, asking her how she could do such a thing and said that she at least should have asked me to give away things that I did not like, instead of selling all my favourites. She was devastated but I continued shouting at her. In the back of my mind, I was very sad, because I had suspected what was going on all day, but I had let it happen to see if she was actually gonna’ go through with it, wanting to have a reason to blame her.

Have you ever heard the expression, "bare necessities?"
That phrase came to my mind as I read the dream. One aspect of the dream could be telling you that you need to eliminate some of the excess clutter which entails going through your stuff and getting rid of things you no longer have use for.

It also appears that there is some family dynamics thing happening between you and your mother. You wanted to blame her. But do you really believe she is guilty of some past transgression against you? You blame her in the dream for giving away all your clothes. Clothes in dreams often means the different persona's you wear. You did say dressing to you was like theater. Did your mother ever accuse you in some way of not living up to her standards or living your life the way she had invisioned it?

The whole world is a stage, and you are the star of your own life story.

Hi and thanks for your response.

I have had a think about your "getting rid of the clutter theory" - and I could buy it if it is meant symbolically i e ridding oneself of thoughts, ideas, behaviour
- but it seems unlikely if you are talking about actual "stuff". My "collection" of clothes is not of a size or proportion that deserves a special dream telling me to get rid of it.
It is just a large wardrobe ;-) and I have room for it. Occasionally I also rumage through it and give or throw away stuff. It is definitely not an obsession or a mad-collector thing.

In the the dream I specifically remember clothes or rather fabric in "cerise red" (dark pink or pinkish red). I think it was raw silk.
I also remember a couple of details in poudre pink, for example a fluffy pink rabbit which was some kind of bag or decoration. (I don't actually own these things in awake life.)

In my awake life relationship with my mother I think that I have done the opposite to what you suggest. I have done exactly as my mother
said I should i. e. she told me never to be dependant on anyone but myself. She told me that I should be rational. She told me that I
should get a good job that pays well. On the other hand, I suspect that the result of her advice was not what she had intended. She meant well
but now I suspect that she might regret it. I am more rational than she would have wantet. I work more then she could have ever imagined anyone work.
And I am completely independant i e alone and single since many years back. Maybe I subconcsiously blame her, 'though it is not her fault but just the result of circumstance.
Sometimes when she enquires about relationships, children etc. I do feel a strong urge to tell her that: "You cannot have the cookie and eat it. This
is what becomes of a person urged to stay rational, unattached and put all focus on work."

Seeing how you love the clothes and willingly get rid of some on your own, than perhaps the dream is referring to other stuff---old habits, ideas, etc.

I usually approach interpretations from the "if it were my dream" direction. Seems you think you've listened to your mother's advice too well. Seems you want a bit more out of life besides career. The empty suitcase you see in the hotel room could be a symbol for this.

It seems like the dream is saying that your mother took control of something that is important to you - your clothes - without your permission. This could be related to the way in real life you always did what your mother told you; maybe you feel that she had too much control over you in the past.