Adventuress Through the Looking Glass…

I am charting my ethical, ecological and spiritual voyage through my wardrobe.  “Gawd, that sounds adventurous!” I hear you exclaim.  “And it is,” I nod sagely in reply.  “Because I am an [Eco] Adventuress and this here blog is Adventuress Undressed.” (Wink).

When I turned eight I quite fancied myself as Marilyn Monroe.  I held court at my birthday party that year, looking like a cross between Jon Benet Ramsey and Barbara Cartland, whilst my friends came as cats; or cowgirls.  These delusions of grandeur remained and at 11 I began buying back issues of Vogue from a local market – 3 for a pand, as they say in Essex. 

Recreating my lofty sartorial aspirations on a late ’80s pocket money budget meant frequenting jumble sales, boot sales and charity shops.  This early training honed my magpie eye and for years my wardrobe resembled a theatrical costume department; as I dressed as the various characters I wanted to be – anybody from Brigitte Bardot to the Lady of Shalott.  Eventually I plumped for a kind of Stepford Wives look – I thought I’d found my niche. 

On moving to a one bedroom apartment in central London, I began a quest for the ideal capsule wardrobe – searching hi and lo for elusive items of apparel which could be mixed and matched with ease, and would last, with the help of accessory updates, for years – not only practical, but also very green (wink).  At this point I like to think of myself as a sort of Catherine Deneuve figure in Belle de Jour, without the illicit sex… or Yves Saint Laurent clothes…  I don’t know which was worse! Anyway, who’d ‘ve thought it, zut alors! In my quest for eternal chic, I developed a severe case of beige zombosis – I had become so understated I was a watermark; and what with the magnolia walls and everything I kept on losing myself.

2005, the year I got married in a blue dress, a la Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief, and felt like an imposter, was also the year of my wardrobe epiphany.  First I attended Well Fashioned: Eco Style in the UK, a Crafts Council exhibition, reportedly “…the first survey of the UK’s £43 million eco-fashion industry.”  What, I asked myself, was the true cost of my capsule wardrobe?

Around this time, I also began volunteering at a charity, Dressed for Success, as a Personal Shopper, helping kit out disadvantaged women with interview appropriate clothing.  I loved seeing clients come in, with little confidence, and leave, with a new found feeling of self worth from the individual attention and the clothes (recycled) they received.  Until then I hadn’t appreciated what a vital part clothes have in aiding confidence and communicating who we are – because first impressions last, as they say.

So, in the next chapter of this on going saga … ahem, adventure, that is my stylish life (!) I am going to work on my  wardrobe (read ‘image’) from the inside out, whilst considering the impact on a worldwide level – I kid ye not.  I don’t have any grand illusions about the importance of my clothes, nor me for that matter, I simply mean I am going to record my wardrobe recovery and self discovery in this wee blog.  As within, so without and all that! 

I am the author of my story, not just a character in it.  This is Adventuress Undressed – and these are my adventures through the looking glass…