I was so impressed last week when I came across & Other Stories new campaign shots. It's rare for fashion brands to use older models, but choosing 65 year old model Ingmari Lamy is arguably the best decision they've ever made. I spend way too much of my time worrying about making the most of my youth, fretting that I only have so much time left until I can no longer do things I love.
One of the biggest worries for me though, is feeling as though I can no longer dress the way I want as I get older. I don't know about any of you but I feel like we're rarely told about later life. We're taught about life immediately after education *note- we're taught how shit hard it is to get a job, and no matter how hard we work we probably won't ever fulfil our dreams.. Thank you for the encouragement society* We're taught about how to live now, how our twenties are the best years of our lives, then you hit your thirties and life flies by and then we regret everything. Brilliant.
People glide into our lives telling us to make the most of our wrinkle free skin and high metabolisms whilst we have them, but can I please ask- what the hell is wrong with a few age spots and a bit of weight gain? Who's to say I won't enjoy my body as I get older? Our looks change and our bodies slow down, but why is that such an awful thing?
Sometimes I feel we're given the impression that we have to give up our hopes and dreams if we don't fulfil them by the age of 35. And I don't want to change my hair or stop wearing the clothes I love. I sometimes wake up feeling panicked despite still being in my early twenties- panicked that I don't have enough time left to achieve everything I want to. It's a load of bullshit really, and I'm angry that so many other young people feel the same way.
Maybe if we all took a moment to just breathe every now and then instead of trying to do everything at once, maybe we wouldn't need to worry so much.
& Other Stories have given me hope that ageing doesn't mean we loose our looks or sense of style. Ingmari looks ten times better than I do now in their new collection- a collection may I add, marketed at women from their late teens onwards... Not many designs look incredible on both a twenty year old and a sixty year old. Perhaps it's a certain confidence and sense of self that comes with age. If so, here's to getting older!
First of all, my sincere apologies for the lack of posts over the last few weeks- christmas seems to have been a much bigger distraction than I imagined it would..
Secondly, as we will be heading into the year 2013 in approximately three hours, I thought I'd take this opportunity to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Me being a general scrooge, have never really been one for New years (possibly due to my chain of unsuccessful celebrations ), but anyway.. This year I'm pleased to be having a quiet one with my family eating tomato and maple brussels, smoked mash and wild mushroom parcels (which definitely beats a night passed out in my own vomit)!
I don't know about any of you, but this year I won't be making any New years resolutions. I've come to the point where I feel if you want to achieve something, why wait until the beginning of the year? Time seems to just be disappearing so fast at the moment, so waiting until this one moment to fulfil my ambitions just seems like a waste.
I am however, going to take this moment to think back over the past year, as it's been a pretty incredible one!
I chose the title of this post as it seemed to really sum up the past twelve months spent discovering what is unique about myself, and I've become a lot more comfortable in my sense of style. Most importantly I've come to realise that it's okay to not follow trends or look like a typical "fashion student".
My resilience in the way I dress as well as my passion for quality over quantity has grown to the point where I feel quite uncomfortable purchasing anything new from the high street, (that and the extensive research I've taken for my dissertation on sustainability)... I've also learnt that by dressing in a much more paired down way not only saves a hell of a lot of wardrobe space, but leaves me free to experiment more with my makeup-something I've longed to do for years!
I'm expecting my purchasing habits to not only continue, but actually improve over the next year as I carry on learning as much as I can about about the importance of slow fashion. Having a wardrobe free of cheap high street sale finds I've never worn is quite thrilling, and has (surprisingly) actually enabled me to become more experimental in what I wear.
I probably sound like a boring old fart right now, but don't get me wrong. I still weep over beautiful prints, I just choose to wear them in a more paired down way- a flash of unexpected colour rather than all over clash. Besides, I'm more interested in the idea of investment rather than purchasing just to throw away...
All I can say is, I'm very much looking forward to another year charity shopping, DIY and throwing myself into my work, and I hope 2013 is a fantastic year for you all!!
See you next year!
Hannah
