Dress Up for Yourself

I got the inspiration for this board while flicking through magazine cuttings. I came across an interview in Porter Magazine with Alberta Ferretti who suggested dressing up for yourself.  This is a great idea if you find yourself slipping into a new default wardrobe. For me, this consists of leggings, grey or white t-shirt, long cardigan, white trainers. It’s so easy and comfortable, but it doesn’t really do anything for my mood. A little effort put into dressing up, together with accessories and make up can be a great way to lift your spirits.  In my case, I’m doing a virtual dressing up. This is what i would wear if I had plans on a day like today. In this virtual world, one of my best friends would be visiting from out of town. We would start with brunch, then hit the shops, followed by late lunch somewhere by the river.

I would be wearing a dress from my favourite clothes store Cos. I really like the organic linen and denim dress from their current collection. My Eternal Ring link necklace would go perfectly with it. I would finish the look with a tan handbag from Coach and flat sandals from Start Weitzman. I admit this is still a kind of uniform, as nowadays I really have streamlined by wardrobe. I know that Cos clothes work best in terms of flattering my body shape. I think they easily shed a whole dress size from my actual size. For handbags, I love the quality and designs of the original Coach bags. They do occasionally reissue their vintage classics and I have a couple (or 3!) of their saddle bags. And in terms of comfort and workmanship, you can’t argue with Stuart Weitzman. Not at all cheap, so I wait for the sales. They are timeless, after all. 

About the Eternal Ring collection, I created it quite a long time ago. I was playing around with circles, but I didn’t want a perfect circle. The shapes I came up with are more organic, and for me they represent life and its ups and downs. Just as life cannot be perfect all the time, it also can’t be imperfect all the time. It goes in cycles, with good times as well as bad. In fact, we often don’t appreciate the good times until we hit a rough patch. How we get through the rough patch depends on how we respond do it. It’s so easy to throw up our hands in the air, complaining about how unfair things are. We all succumb to this, as nobody is perfect. But it’s very helpful to zoom out after a little bit of a tantrum and choose to see the big picture and opt to be positive or choose to summon your fighting spirit and work hard to get through it. Sometimes it’s helpful to have a piece of jewellery which can have symbolic value and remind you of the bigger cycle of life. Check out the whole collection here.

 For information and links to all the items in this article, click here.