On… what I wore

Yesterday was the photoshoot and interview for North East magazine.

Absolutely delightful fun and in the most incredible venue: Lost In Beauty, a shrine to all that is girlie and great, in Primrose Hill. They sell handpicked hair and makeup brands (Chantecaille, Becca, RMK, etc) and have a boudoir downstairs dedicated to makeovers.


I just decided to try to make you one of those lookbook style compilations, you know, the kind that fashion bloggers make? Dudes! It took forever. Newfound respect. Anyway. Here it is:

I chose this outfit because:
1. The jeans make me feel very tall and thin. Which is the only job any pair of jeans ever has to do, really. They are from J Brand via TheOutnet. (They’re on there right now! Run!)
2. The cardigan is cosy-snuggly, but looks kind of put together (unusual for a cardigan), and it’s a nice pinky shade of nude. I look like vom in those camel-nudes. I like grey and nude together: those colours are friends, like grey and white. Actually grey is friends with every other colour, really.
3. The top is pretty and white, and any pretty, white top does it for me. Have you ever noticed that you buy multiple versions of your favourite things, even though you don’t really need them? I have a friend who owns nine pairs of black trousers. Me, it’s white tops. It’s like I’m preparing for some kind of fashion war, where there might be a white top rationing law. I also have a thing for Victorian-governess-style lace tops, you know the kind? I once found a beyewtiful one at H&M; that had about 50 tiny buttons on the back. Then I broke up with the guy I was living with and was like ‘shit, I am never going to be able to do this up by myself’. Yah. Total nightmare guys.
4. The shoes are – okay, I didn’t put much thought into the shoes, I just grabbed them on the way out the door in case I needed them. Good thing, too, as they ended up taking photos of me walking/strutting around Primrose Hill, laptop in hand. Because I totally walk around with my laptop in case inspiration strikes.
5. The earrings are little sparkly skulls. I am a bit jewelry-tarded, and rarely wear anything except the wedding/engagement rings. I bought those at Topshop years ago.

I’ve been a bit meh about posting about fashion up till now. I write about clothes a lot in THE DATING DETOX and A GIRL LIKE YOU, but I definitely don’t want to pretend I’m a style maven. I’m just a fashion enthusiast, like most women I know… I sometimes look at photos and think ‘Sheesh, I should really have put the crack pipe down that day.’ Particular mistakes include the outfits titled Crushed Grape, 70s Babysitter and Drunk Headmistress. Not good. I hope this outfit stands the test of time. It’s pretty innocuous – I can’t even think of a name for it, in fact.

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3 thoughts on “On… what I wore

  1. Gemma Burgess

    Okay. When Fun With Fashion goes wrong!

    Crushed Grape was a purple jersey bodytube thing from American Apparel, worn with a purple cardigan from H&M; and purple converses. I thought I looked great, like a regal column of purpleity, then I saw myself in a shop reflection on the way to work and realised I looked seriously fucking stupid. And – far worse! – lumpy in the wrong places. The other name for this look was Giant Bruise. It was at about that time that I stopped wearing most colours.

    Drunk Grandmother was inspired by a 1950s tweed jacket with sharp little shoulders and fab elbow patches from a secondhand shop in Covent Garden. (Said jacket is now, sadly, lost, after eight years of continuous wear… where are you, oh perfect little tweed jacket?) Worn with black midi-skirt, flat shoes, a turtleneck and a brooch, my hair in a very messy bun (thus the 'drunk'). For a start, brooches always look bloody silly on me, I can't do fussy. The turtleneck was too severe next to the tweed. One can only wear midi skirts with heels and if possible bare arms or a shaped top, or one looks frumpy, unless one is Gisele, and I am not Gisele. The whole look was just depressing. I also think it didn't work because rather than being simply lightly influenced by the idea of a drunk grandmother (ie, the traditional jacket and messy bun work with a lacy top and perhaps modernised with, say, holey skinny jeans and yellow heels, which would have been fine, in my opinion anyway, note my opinion will probably change next week and I am totally not a trained style professional) I looked like I was insane.

    70s Babysitter was actually just a look stolen from one of the early scenes in Dazed and Confused, one of my favourite films evah. Jeans shorts, knee-length socks, white plimsolls, little white polo top, perky ponytail. I was only about 26 at the time but it was still very mutton-lamb. Under the knee socks = B A D. My knees are starting to look like potatoes, by the way.

    I don't really experiment with themed dressing any more. For a start, I'm in my 30s now and the line between 'kooky' and 'idiot' is too fine; secondly, I freelance sometimes, so I try to look a bit professional because that's what they're paying me for; and thirdly, as mentioned before, I settled on 'French schoolboy' a year or so ago and haven't really changed much since.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    haha, that really made me laugh! Where do all the lost clothes go?? Is there some fashion heaven where all the things you misplace end up? If so, I want to go – I can think of loads of things that just suddenly went awol without my permission and I want them back!

    Reply

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