A/W 10: my style

Fashion does not mean changing the entire way you look every 6 months (although we’ve all seen the girls in head to toe Topshop who seem to think it does). Nor does it mean spending a fortune, or giving up your own personal sense of style but rather supplementing and evolving your look with your interpretations of the seasons looks. As I’ve stated in a previous post, to me the way we dress is an extension of my personality and the way I want to present that to the world, so there’s always going to be key looks I keep to. Mostly, black dresses, opaque tights, headbands and a lot of vintage and if I wake up one morning and decide I want to dress like a goth ballerina (as a friend described a recent outfit) I will, whether this has anything to do with current trends or not. And for everyone who smugly tells me they have nothing to do with trends or fashion (see this for starters), they all tend to look remarkably similar to everyone else in whatever social group they’ve decided to fit in with. The point is, everyone has their look, whether they think they do or not. Insert Monty Python reference WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUAL etc. But you can ‘follow’ trends and still retain an individual look – there’s not really such a thing as trends anyway (as this post neatly demonstrates) and two people could wear two designers for a whole season and look completely different to each other. It’s about taking what you like & making it your own, not blindly going ‘Oh I will now wear this for 6 months and then get rid of it’.

There’s very little point wearing something you don’t like; you’re just going to look uncomfortable and vaguely ridiculous. Which is why I’ll be avoiding all the aviator jackets (am I the only person who doesn’t like them?), kitten heels and return of the boot flare (why. WHY) this season. However, I love the full skirts, capes (dahling, I’ve been wearing mine for seasons), maxi dresses and wedge heels and so will be adding them into my wardrobe whilst keeping hold of all the usual suspects that mostly make up my style. Of course, being a massive cheapskate (and getting my kicks out of this sort of thing) I will be mostly scouring charity shops, e-bay and my sewing pile to create these new looks. (It’s also considerably more ethical to re-use, and I’m trying to get rid of my reliance on the shoddy quality and ethics of the high street) So, over the next few weeks I’m going to produce a series of posts detailing each of my interpretations of the ‘key items’ for a/w 10, and where I managed to source them from. To me, seeing something in a magazine and going out and buying it is a bit boring. Where’s the fun in that? Oh my God, I’ve become my mother….

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