IT ALL STARTED WITH A PINK FAUX-FUR COAT
Reflecting on 23 years of loving fashion!
Oops, I accidentally took a hiatus from writing. Let me explain myself… recently I turned 23 (I feel so old) and as a result, I decided that in the weeks commencing my birthday, rather than using my time wisely to write I would instead embark on an existential crisis of sorts.
Back in school, I blindly assumed I would have it all sorted by 23. I thought my 23-year-old self would be kind of cool (I am not, in fact, I might actually be the total opposite of cool).
Over the past few weeks, any free time that I would typically dedicate to writing I have instead decided to spend mentally listing all the reasons I have supposedly *failed* by the age of 23: ‘I have NO savings’, ‘I have NO idea what I want to do with my life and I DON’T have a career’ (you get the picture!!!). In fact, my biggest achievement as of late was hitting exactly £20 on the petrol meter when I only had £20 in cash on me (I am still very proud of this, so proud that I took a photo of it).
I can’t believe I was fed the idea growing up that Bridget Jones was a failure, a mess even. She had two men fighting for her (hello… who wouldn’t want young Hugh Grant), a career, and a flat in Borough Market all by the mere age of 32.
Anyway, I’m not here to discuss my complicated relationship with the Bridget Jones franchise, I’m here to somewhat “justify” my recent lack of writing.
In between submitting CVs, Cover Letters and whatever else it is that job applications ask you to do nowadays, I’ve totally forgotten who I am (UGH, I know what you’re thinking #firstworldproblems, and you know what you would be completely right to call me out on this). I know all too well what qualifications I do or don’t have but I’ve lost sight of what else it is that I know to be true about myself.
However, it is at times like this that I feel extremely grateful to have found my love for fashion early in my life. It may sound silly, perhaps even cringeworthy, but I have always known that I LOVE to dress up.
Fashion has been a constant in my life from the age of 5 to 23. I vividly remember seizing every opportunity I could, when I was about 5 years old, to wear my favourite pink faux-fur coat. I was convinced that wearing it made me the coolest kid on the playground. Now at the age of 23, I feel the same way about the vintage Penny Lane coat that my dad found for me at a car boot for £15. For a brief moment, whenever I put it on, I get to pretend that as opposed to being Daisy from Essex, I’m Daisy from Daisy Jones and the Six.
I just LOVE being unapologetically girly. Sometimes I worry this will be my downfall, that I won’t make it up the career ladder because I still love to dress up as much as I did when I was 5 years old, BUT if watching Legally Blonde 50x over has taught me anything, it’s that you can indeed have a flourishing career whilst wearing an awful lot of pink.
I am aware that if you were asked to rank the top 100 most important things in this world, fashion realistically wouldn’t even make the list BUT nevertheless, I just can’t help how I feel about it. I don’t care for brands or price tags (although let’s not forget, it must be sustainable and ethical) I just love how the process of scraping together an outfit makes me feel.
P.S. I pinkie promise to not take another hiatus for writing my newsletter!
