Before Easter, Cynthia from The Perfect Life and her beautiful daughter and myself and my wayward teenager, made up a foursome for early drinks at the Blue Bar at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge.
Early drinks turned into quite a number of glasses of Champagne and we staggered home at 11pm, I had no idea of the time and thought it to be only 9.
It is novel to meet a virtual stranger and yet to know so much about each other's lives, conversation came easily, even to my normally monosyllabic school boy who discovered a modicum of charm that evening (check out Cynthia's blog and the reason is apparent!)
I didn't take photos as Cynthia's blog is a private/ public endeavour and it didn't feel right to intrude on our laid back night.
I've never met up with anyone that I have 'met' through the blogworld, and would have thought the whole 'what to wear' thing would require much thought and agonising. But a work meeting earlier the same day changed that preconception.
I was meeting with the fashion team of a fairly well-known magazine and we were talking about fashion week. One of them mentioned a collection from a designer who I know personally and have always liked (both him and his clothes). She dismissed the collection saying that she would never feature his 'Ugly Clothes'. This designer uses draping and beautiful silks in jewel colours, there are lots of words that could be used if you are a detractor, 'attention seeking, impractical, overly dramatic', but 'Ugly clothes' really surprised me. And confirmed yet again how fickle and silly fashion is. It is truly just in the eyes of the beholder. A particular aesthetic comes into 'fashion' simply because a few of the 'opinion forming' editors like the look (and the ad revenue) and tell us we should all adopt it. Call me fickle I wrote a post about this very thing when I first started the new job and had been sucked into feeling utterly inadequate.
The whole exchange confirmed what I have been thinking for a while, I am just going to go back to wearing what I like, having fun with clothes and not thinking about them too much.
All of my favourite blogs have a bit of fashion in them, but generally are more about the ideas or people behind the clothes than trying to 'sell' garments to the readers. The ones that I read religiously are Bourbon and Pearls, The Perfect Life,A woman a life blog, Style at every Age, there are more, but these spring to mind as they have been going for years and post regularly.
I thought I was interested in the clothes, but I have realised, I'm not really, it is the life behind it all that grabs my interest (weird voyeuristic stalker that I am!)
Sometimes I do like the mindless scrolling through people's high street picks and I love looking at their own real life outfits, I actively seek out those who have a completely different taste to mine. But words like 'ugly clothes' wouldn't even cross my mind, I like to see how different we all are and wouldn't life be boring and predictable if it were any other way?
And so for my big night out, I dressed in a way that is just me. Nothing to do with designers or fashion, I like this cocoa brown colour and the dress gives me some longed for shape rather than my usual Honey Monster bulk, luckily I have a matching brown fitted cardi, it's all easy and forgiving and my taste, and I am sure to fashion editors who are trying to flog the latest looks, the epitome of 'Ugly Clothes'.
