A NEW START

Before I begin…..

I am feeling a little less than confident about where to start with new platform. I am not a procrastinator by nature but believe me, I have found so many ways to not begin to write!

I decided to move to this platform as the others did not seem conducive to longer pieces of writing. Having also seen many favourites move here, it seemed like a good idea to follow suit.

Although I’ve been in the image and styling industry for a long time, I wanted to touch on the subject of clothing without always relating it back to how we look. For many years I’ve been of the opinion, at least for me, that clothing is a wellness tool. After all we need to get dressed every day so we may as well feel comfortable in our choices. Fortunately, for most of us, this is possible. History tells us that this has not always been the case. Many items in the wardrobe constricted and constrained the body, in some case breaking bones and crushing vital organs.

There are, of course, many ways of not enjoying what we wear - strict dress codes when we’re in the wrong job, pressure from social media to conform to a certain look, body dysmorphia, dressing for someone else (more common than you might think), getting older. The list goes on.

My own story owes a lot to having to wear second hand clothing until I was nearly 20 years old. Having no sense of style, not knowing which ‘tribe’ I belonged to, and having eating disorders, resulted in a lack of confidence and self-worth until my 30’s.

It all changed when the organisation I worked for brought in an image consultant. This was back in the early 1990’s so about the time colour analysis was becoming the ‘thing’. She taught me how to make the changes I needed and the rest of the story makes for good reading both professionally and personally. Although I never made the leap into the image industry until a good decade later, I never forgot what she said and how profoundly it affected me.

While this is not a styling guide per se, I am hoping it will give you food for thought. Despite the opinions of some, what we wear is important. It’s not fluffy or vacuous. It can be liberating, empowering, confidence boosting and transformational. Clothes can be emotional, evoking memories of people we loved or events that had meaning. They tell a narrative of times gone by, hence the huge demand for the recent Gabrielle Chanel Manifesto exhibition in London which sold out in hours and resulted in a 33% increase in membership for the V&A.

I’m hoping this newsletter will open up fruitful conversations and help all of us, myself included, to maybe reflect more on what we choose to buy and wear and the meanings behind those decisions.

My intention is to create something weekly - but if there ‘s no inspiration, I’ll wait. I also don’t intend to charge for my musings, or at least, not at this juncture.

Thank you for finding me and I hope you enjoy what’s to come.

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