First and foremost I want to start out by thanking each and everyone of you who read my last "anti-Valentines" post and for the all the crazy, wonderful feedback I received! It truly means the world to not only hear you enjoy reading my posts, but that they may possibly in some way inspire you, strengthen you and touch you. I've had such a moral dilemma recently within myself to want to start writing about more- shall we say- personal subjects, but have felt petrified to put myself "out there". The last post in particular felt a tad daunting because I was terrified of coming across as completely disingenuous; telling you all one minute my boyfriend is awesome and the next that I bloody hated Valentines? Huh?!... BUT after much soul searching I finally decided to hit publish (with my hand over my eyes) and I'm so pleased I did. I can't tell you how relieved I am that you guys "got me". You understood, you empathised and most importantly you weren't afraid to stand up, be counted and say "I feel the same". May all my future posts continue to make you feel as amazing as you all truly are, as they will forever endeavour (who's the poet? me!) to do so...
Right anyway, enough of all that mush I've get more moaning to get on with... This is that awkward moment where I want to tell you I'm kidding but...erm... I'm not. As mentioned in my post just over two weeks ago, I'm attempting to discuss my personal gripes a little more in a bid to overcome them and maybe dish some advise out to those of you with mutual feelings. This week I wanted to talk to you all about... Drum roll please... Wardrobe confidence and my lack there of. I'm fully aware it might seem a touch strange for a "fashion" blogger (I'm using that term very loosely because I'm not convinced I do that title much justice) to suddenly chirp up about her lack of style faith and it definitely begs the questions, if I'm not sure in what I wear than why the hell should I be offering out style tips to others? But make yourself comfy and I shall explain... I'm suddenly feeling like I should be sat in a old Chesterfield by an open fire, with a leather bound book in hand...
OK so we're all on social media here aren't we? Yes? Then we've all experienced the constant use of the same, old "buzz" words which, to some are maybe getting a teeny weeny bit tiresome (I'm trying to be very diplomatic in my approach here). You know what I mean though, we're all apparently "on point (fleet is old hat now FYI) spending Fri-YAY with BAE and it's total squad goals" whilst we all ride around on our unicorns and obsess over pizza, avocado and apparently pineapples...weirdly enough? I'm aware I may be preaching to the choir here- Just to be clear I like pizza and pineapples but avocado looks and tastes like green Play-Doh... Not that I've ever tasted Play-Doh, moving on.... But the one buzz word I want to talk about today is a little something called "sass". I like this word A LOT! For such a tiny word, it does a lot of good. It enables girls to feel proud, confident and vivacious ... Well some of them anyway. You see, it was my personal believe that my appearance and dress sense had zero sass. When I think sass (oh my gosh, my word count in this post for "sass" is going to be up the wall) I think of these super glossy girls with perfectly tussled, perfectly balayaged hair, insanely well sculptured eyebrows and immaculate "barely there" make up. You know the kind of girls who can wear heels all day and not end up resembling Gollum, post foot surgery come 5pm (I just lied to you, I'm definitely channeling this look come 12pm in heels). They're girly yet effortlessly chic and manages to go an entire day without smudging their eye liner flicks, creasing their outfits or acquiring a greasy fringe (HOW?). I on the other hand, am categorically the complete opposite of these girls. Count all the sass I have, oh wait you can't. ZERO SASS!
Don't get my wrong my style's been called lots of debatably lovely words; retro, cute, tomboyish, you get the gist.... I can never quite decide how complimentary any of these adjectives actually are but one things for certain none of them come close to conjuring an image of pure glamour and so maybe they are kind of accurate to me? I should mention this isn't me digging for compliments, I know my style. It's followed me around everyday, all day since I started dressing myself and one thing I know for sure is, I ain't the super preened type. And that's totally fine to a degree but I reached a point in my early twenties where I'd go on nights out and I'd just feel like an out right frump! I didn't spend hours on my hair, my make up was/is effectively the same in the day as it is in the night, not too "out there" and nothing which requires too much skill (I kind of retract that- Cat eye flicks are an art in themselves). I hated heels, only resigning to wear them on "special" occasions where they felt strictly necessary- weddings, fancy meals, dressing up as Sandy from Grease.... It just didn't feel right to try and be something I'm not, a girly girl. I just didn't feel comfortable but then, in turn I felt equally uncomfortable going out in a low-key look and feeling like someone's great aunt Ethel. I can't remember who actually said this but apparently, "it's always better to be over dressed then underdone".... In which case I was well and truly screwed. Or maybe I'm thinking of the Oscar Wilde quote, "you can never be over dressed or over educated"? Not the point. Either way, if Oscar had ever met he, he would have finished that quote with "...but you can be underwhelmed".
I feel like I'm constantly hammering this home to you guys, but I honestly to this day feel at my most comfortable in a stripe top, jeans and Converse, I don't see that every changing. And that's just it, over time my style hasn't changed one bit (well I say that, with some exceptions- Disco Pants no longer seem like the best idea, SHINY LYCRA pants, what on earth were we thinking?!) but my outlook certainly has. Call it old age possibly setting in, but I'm finally learning that effectively I just don't care that much how I look in comparison to other girls! As long as I'm dressed for me, in my style than I'm A-OK.. Moreover this has become my slant on a lot of subjects not just fashion. You are never going to feel comfortable imitating someone else because what makes one girl feel amazing, can make another feel like they are totally out of their depth with absolutely no logic what so ever. Imitation is the highest form of flattery but if its lacking integrity, well lady you might as well not both. I'm a firm believer in doing whatever you want in life as long as you do it with a little heart. Don't copy others because you're scared to go against the grain, I'll telling you this now, you'll feel more silly in doing so then just saying "forget this, I'm doing my own thing". It's a waste of time. The worst thing you can do in life is compare yourself to someone else because here's the thing we're all forgetting; There is only one you, me and her in the world and on face value some of us may seem similar but we are all sooooo, so, so (too many so's?) completely different and personally I think that's a bloody blessing. All I'm saying is, you can be whatever you want in life but you can't be her... Sorry.
And just so we're all clear, I looked up the definition of "sass" and I quote- "lively, bold and full of spirit". So correct me if I'm wrong but I think we're all able to be our own kind of sass as long as we feel confident in what we wear. Who knew? Not me apparently. Ok, I'm still unable to wear heels the majority of the time and feel like I truly own them, BUT I can wear a pair of gold, shiny boots and slogan knit and feel like a million bucks (maybe not bucks, but a million pence at least). In fact, come to think of it, metallic boots in general give me live and lift my spirit so there you go- definition of sass right there! Personal preference really is a wonderful thing. Yes, I still worry that I'm edging closer to an age where I may actually have to dress like an adult and not a five year old boy but, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now I'm continue to wear pretty dresses with dirty Converse, sheer lace blouses under dungarees and patent mini's with khaki parkas because otherwise it just wouldn't be me. Retro, cute, Tomboyish and newly discovered sassy old me.
Personal style. Personal "goals",
Sophia x
PS In writing this post I found a website which keeps a record of all past and present "buzzwords" and incase you didn't know "ham dog" is SO on trend right now. With "sea lion" being so 2015 and "scrum master" being sooooo 2014... The internet scares me.
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