Fashion has very much been an eventful journey since 1997 and the tender age of 13. Up until that point I was utterly clueless. If I wasn't in sports gear (sports bras and popper trousers... oh yes they did have their day once...), it was some double-denim monstrosity with a rave-inspired crop top or a brightly-coloured 90s-esque stretchy legging-t-shirt-legwarmers combo. I think the most stylish picture of myself from my childhood is as an angel in my school play, aged 6 (left). I was your typical maths nerd, while not unattractive I was much more interested in homework and team sports against boys than I was in working out what to wear. My hair was a mess of wavy curls and I'd never wear make-up as I didn't know how.
We didn't have much money at home, and the fact my growing had slowed down enough for mum to let me get some real trousers (leggings are much more practical if you gain many inches a year apparently) was a real milestone for me at the age of 12. The only problem I found? I was 5'10" (176cm) tall with lanky legs and huge feet! So mum began making my clothes, which meant very a baggy trouser style (see pic right from 1997...)... with a stretch waist as it was quicker to sew. Would you believe they still fit me now??So the turning point in this rather terrifying fashion hell?? Another rather nerdy girl from school came round my house... and we sat chatting in my room. I'm not sure of the exact details of how... I may have mentioned having never read a girl's magazine... ever... but she had me frogmarched to the cornershop to get a pile of girlie magazines faster than I could blink. I was talked through the different sections, given a frank run-down on my rather shameful wardrobe, and swiftly booked on a shopping trip to get a selection of multi-coloured nail polishes so I could paint each toe a different colour (this was a huge trend at the time apparently!).
And so it began. I could never afford any beautiful clothes, but mum was getting better at making things for me, and my aunt lived in Paris so we could get amazing fabrics from round Montmartre. I first latched onto the punk-skater-chic (!) as my identity as my brother rode semi-professional BMX and I was spending lots of time down the trails in the woods, and needed practical clothes that didn't make people smirk like the old ones used to. I'd kind of gotten used to people laughing at me about my simple and stretchy clothes at school, so it was quite weird finally feeling like I could belong. The clothing was an extension of my personality - and finally I was able to save enough to get clothes that I wanted on occassion.
I would ask every Christmas and birthday from then on for shopping vouchers, excitedly planning how to spend them and what each item would say about me. The frustrations still of being tall would mean I had a growing collection of maxi-skirts of all varieties, and by the time I went to college I didn't own anything but skirts and a single paid of enormously baggy jeans!
The final revelation in the fashion quest was university. A big far student loan living allowance, that meant complete and utter independence for shopping. This, coupled with going to Imperial (which is about a 40 minute WALK to Oxford Street) and the fact the shops there actually did TALL clothes sealed my fate. Clothes became my release, my artist expression, my vocalisation of myself. A bit like a butterfly I moved on from the punk-skater-goth-rather-chic and began to understand real clothes a bit more. Still high street but definitely a step up - people actually would comment on my clothes on a daily basis!
After university the world of work finally gave me the opportunity to understand trends, seasons, the different collections... and most importantly how to buy timeless clothes so that updating for new seasons is really replacing clothes which desperately need replacing! Being able to understand what everyone will want to wear in a few months means you can appear to be a trend-setter, with very little effort on your part.
Now days fashion is a huge part of who I am. I have friends who love fashion too... and we can discuss on a level that naive me would have just looked bemused at. Fashion is life, but fashion is one of the "black arts" still to most of the population. The advent of excellent magazines targeting using high street buys to recreate designer looks... and of course Gok's impact on the nation have helped, but the techniques and understanding of how to dress to suit your own shape, style and colour is something that seems a little to abstract for most people.
So here is my mission... to the science behind style, understand colours, shapes, textures and techniques for bringing them all together. To explain simply the reasons why some things work and some things will never do so.
Follow me if you are interested... and feed back your thoughts!
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