Is Fashion your Best Friend ?

Hello my name is Caroline the founder of Pretty Special. I’m also from a generation that the media loves to tell me what is appropriate to wear. When you hit a certain age, the world decides to have a viewpoint on my fashion choices. I wear faux fur, red lipstick, over-the-knee boots and of course embellished leather jackets: not all at once I might add. Considering this am I deemed Fashion forward or fashion faux pas or mutton dressed as lamb ? Deciding what to wear is tricky at any age, even more so if you are to be bound by rules that society dictates. I’ve rarely found, that my own view point matches up with the image I have of myself or the way I want to look. Oh you can’t wear those colours or I can hear my mother saying cover your back, you’ll catch a chill in your kidneys. Well I’m sorry but I’m not ready to be dressing like the Queen or my predecessors of the same age group. I’m not prepared to give up the offerings of Zara. According to recent reports, you’re too old to be shopping at Zara if you’re over 33. I don’t want to be classified where I shop. If I like it, I buy it and I know what suits me.
My twenties offspring, is quite frank with his views, no filter. Like when I bought the Acne Velocitie leather biker jacket. I’d been lusting after this for ages. In reality, I’m not 6 foot tall or the frame to suit it, so when he said I looked like Michelin man, I listened. Same goes for a leopard print, which I love, why are there connotations of Bet Lynch for women of a certain age. Fortunately with working in fashion, I found that my own style was accepted especially my love of flat-form brogues. Love a white shirt and cropped culottes, I know these trousers are not everyone’s friend but it’s believing in yourself.
Of course magazines, media are full of advice, ‘how to dress well’ or ‘top ten mistakes’. In other words embrace the socially accepted rules, be boring, be beige, get rid of all your fabulous wardrobe and become invisible. This is troublesome, this advice feeds into the insecurities that women develop as they get older. Thanks to hormones, piling on the pounds having bright red belisha bacon faces we fall victim to feeling not quite ourselves. Children fly the nest, careers stall and if not careful we end up feeling dumpy and frumpy, becoming a shadow or perhaps that’s just my thoughts.
“What we wear affects our mental processes and perceptions and literally change our minds and the way we think”
Research suggests that if we have lost our mojo, pushing our fashion boundaries can help with a renewed sense of identity and make a big differance to how we feel. Psychology of Fashion Professor Karen Pine explains in her book ‘Mind what you wear’, what we wear affects how we feel. Your outfit can affect your mental processes and how we actually think. Very powerful for just some clothes. Most women she suggests, dress not to look attractive but to feel confident. This doesn’t mean to throw caution to the wind and lose all our fashion sensibility. I certainly don’t have the legs for short skirts and bearing midriff is tricky for any age. I do love knee rip jean and I’d honestly love to be able to carry off high heels, instead of walking like a man in drag, in-fact I’ve seen a few gentlemen who rock a heel.
There are many kick ass females to look up to and admire. A friend rang me the other day and said I’ve just seen the most incredible bling necklace it’s just so ‘you’. Knowing your own style and what you like is good enough.I decided to give myself a kick up the ass, start my own company and do what I love the most. I’m rocking my mojo.
I’ve stopped caring what everyone else thinks.
So you’ll recognise me in the supermarket with an embellished biker jacket on and red lippy X