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You Are What You Wear Part 2: The Me Edition

So as promised (or threatened depending on your perspective) this is what I wear.
A couple of comments to begin.
Firstly my head isn’t in any of them, the photographer of the first two (my mother) just about blinded me with the flash and I looked as though I had spent all night at Rock City. In the last photo it is because B appears to be more interested in my shoes. They’re good shoes though, so fair play.
Secondly I realised afterwards that three typical outfits is nigh on impossible for me. Ain’t hindsight a wonderful thing? They’re photos from three days this week, and I tend to be from the variety is the spice of life camp. There are some commonalities though, mentioned below, so they’re not totally non cohesive.

No, I don’t know why my foot is in that irritating jaunty angle. I wish it weren’t though it makes me look as though I’m about to start singing ‘Take me Home Country Roads’.

Despite appearances to the contrary I do have arms.

It’s all about the shoes in this one.

Commonalities
You will notice that I’m not wearing trousers in any of the pictures. Apart from those for sleeping/exercising in, I own only one pair. I don’t own any jeans, I hate them. They’re the most uncomfortable garment ever, and cannot fathom why on earth so many people love them. Especially men. Why would you do that to yourself? If someone offered me an outfit and said “you’ll look really cool but you have to wedge your breasts down one sleeve”, I’d tell them to naff off.  I’m 99% skirt/dress kind of girl.

Colour schemes. The pictures are only partly representative of this. Since I discovered that the style rule about redheads not wearing red is in fact complete bollocks, I have gradually gathered more red into my wardrobe. I love red. Red lipstick features heavily in my make up wardrobe. I also love black, but I think that’s probably a universal constant. I know very few people, women especially, who don’t have plenty of black in their wardrobes. I do try, as picture 3 demonstrates, to wear plenty of colour. Generally though it’s my shoes that fulfill that part.

Pencil skirts. Only picture 2 has one in but I own 4 and am always looking for more. They fit in with my personal definition of femininity (which is more ‘Secretary’ than ‘Love Story’), and they force you to take in the world-you can’t run in a pencil skirt. Plus they make your bum look good.

The two pictures above are to demonstrate the one thing that really is constant in my outfits, and that’s a flower hair clip (a band with a bow on is a reasonable second option). I have little itty bitty subtle ones like the one that I wore with outfits one and three, and huge ones like that from outfit two.

Tribe?
I’ve been thinking long about this and I’ve come to the conclusion that these days I don’t know. I suppose my style could be characterised as girly. I tend to be drawn to silhouettes of the past, hence the pencil skirts, and I’d like to think that people ‘get’ that vibe. Though given some of the looks I get, I think lunatic is probably what I’m expressing to some parts of the population. I’m not afraid of not looking the same as the people around me. Which is just as well living where I live, I suspect I’d blend in a heck of a lot more if I lived in London or worked in an industry where dressing a bit more ‘enthusiastically’ was the norm.
I certainly wouldn’t be part of the Casual tribe, I can’t do casual. I look like a berk, or a sack of potatoes. So to some extent my style is dictated by my figure. The hourglass might be seen as an aspirational figure in some quarters (Gok et al), but I guarantee, upon discovering that most trousers look hideous and that slouchy just makes you look like a duvet, the aspirants would be begging for their pear-shape back. I like it though, now I’m used to it.

Was I ever part of a tribe? When I was a teenager I had two wardrobes, one for regular clothes and the other for black. I was never a goth, though I do love goth style, I might enjoy make up but I’m really not that patient. If I was part of a tribe I never found any of my fellow tribesmen and women. I made a concerted effort to not be trendy, but never stand out too much (being ginger, 5′8, speccy and smart arsed was quite enough standing out). It would, I think, have been nice as a teenager to have found other people who didn’t want to wear jeans, Sweater Shop jumpers and nafnaf cagouls all the time. If only to prove that they existed. I have to admit to a mild envy of the three emo kids who go to the local comprehensive. There might only be three of them, but at least there’s three so they can be a bit more safe in dressing as they want to (though I’m betting the boy gets a far harder deal than his two female friends), and not have to look like all the identikit teens that loaf around town.

Would I want to be part of a tribe now? Unless I was going to get really brave a dress myself all kawaii in Lolita style-my favourite fashion tribe of all-then no. I’d be quite alarmed to find myself face to face with a bunch of people who dress the same as me. I have tastes in common with burlesquers (corsets, flowers, shiny things, pencil skirts), rockabilly (pencil skirts, swing skirts, flowers), 7 year old girls (flowers, red shoes), Chelsea ladies who lunch* (boots, tweed skirts), 80s Sloanes (suits, ballgowns) and scenesters (black, coloured hoisery). I wouldn’t want to just be one thing though. My tastes are too diverse. Identifying myself as one tribe would feel a bit like saying “I’ll only eat Red Leicester”. It’s nice, it’s probably my favourite hard cheese, but would I want to commit myself to eating only that. No.

However, I am me. So my perspective on my style can’t really be described as unbiased. What does it say to other people? If you saw me in the street would you assign me to any particular tribe?
And while you’re at answering those, if you haven’t already please share your photos too (pretty pretty please).

*I was told, sometime last year, that I looked as though I’d just parked my Chelsea tractor and was on my way to elevenses.
*I though I’d just take a moment to admit to fancying Peter York when I was younger.

Tags: clothes, local, nosy, photos, style, tribes