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| Some of the prettiness I love (Clockwise from Top Left) 1. My Pin Up Embroidery Skirt, 2. Bunny Slippers, 3. Petticoats, 4. Pink Bowling Shoes, 5. Adorable Pyjama Pattern |
I like pretty things.
I really do.
Anyone who knows me well will know that I don't really go in for the whole jeans and t-shirt look. I enjoy dressing up, wearing pretty dresses and feeling fancy, and I'm pretty much always overdressed for events. I can't help it, I just love pretty things and I love to wear them. One of the reasons that I love reading blogs so much is that I get to experience the worlds of other people who like pretty things as much as I do, it makes me feel like I'm not the only overdressed and slightly out of place person in the world!
Sometimes as I wander through a world of people wearing beige and black I wonder whether one day I will suddenly change and conform. I throughly admire the style of Georgia Rose of the Velevettes, she is so secure in her look and what she loves to wear, but I totally understand how she feels when she asks:
" I wonder, when will it get weird that my favourite outfit is a giraffe-print minidress with patent t-bar flats? ...What is the half-life of rainbow glittery oxfords?"
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| Georgia Rose's Kitten Around Dress from the Velvettes |
I sometimes feel, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, that one day it may be quite hard for me to be taken seriously because of the way I dress. At the moment, working as a performer, the way I look is important but I'm not judged by what I wear off stage as long as I look right on stage. However, I know that one day I may decide that the hectic, uncertain, forever-travelling-around-and-never-settling actor's life isn't right for me anymore, and what will happen to my wardrobe then? Will I be taken seriously as a business woman, as a wife and mother (one day!) or just a grown up if I continue my love affair with pretty dresses bows and glitter?
But do you know what happens when I start to worry about these things? I stop. And do you know why? Because I am constantly inspired by the amount of individual and stylish women that choose to share their beautiful lives with me everyday. I just have to take a peak at my feed reader and my worries just disappear.
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| Solanah from Vixen Vintage and Cassie from Cassie Stephens |
You ladies are incredible. You are mothers, wives, business women, strong women and above all beautiful, inspiring women. You make me realise that there isn't an age that I'll reach and then I'll suddenly lose my love of beautiful things and wearing them. You show me that whatever labels we may collect in life (wife/mother/grown-up etc.) we never stop being ourselves and there's no reason to stop showing that to the world.
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| Twila Jean from twilajean.com and Brittany from Va Voom Vintage |
Of course our preferences change as we grow older - I no longer want to wear the hot pink parachute pants I lived in when I was eleven, and one day I may no longer have a fondness for beaded cardigans - but my point is that whatever I wear, however I change and grow, I'm still going to be me and I'm still going to like pretty things. And if one day I decide that my carefully selected, loved and cared for wardrobe is no longer for me, I know that there will be others who will gladly take it off my hands and love it just as much as I did.
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| Elsie from A Beautiful Mess and Casey from Elegant Musings |
I like pretty things.
I really do.
And that's not changing any time soon!
Katie xxx
18 comments:
Funny, I blogged about this just yesterday after an old lady questioned my bright purple coat. The way I see it, our clothes are an expression of who we are inside them - why would you stop wearing fun clothes if you haven't stopped being fun?
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Yay! It's the I-like-pretty-things club! My Dad once told me that I was dressed like a doll; to which I replied "Why thank you! That's the look I was going for!" ; ) Never stop being true to yourself Katie, it's just too much fun not to be. : D
xox,
bonita of Depict This!
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I like pretty things too!!! YAY for fun and beautiful clothes!
Good on you hun, embrace your style :)
I wish we all would keep something of our childlike mind. Taking life too serious and forgetting what is fun makes us boring and tired. It's important to feel happiness and have fun, that is what keeps us going when times get tough. If pretty things makes you happy, then don't ever loose the love for those. I try not to :D
This is the first time visiting your cutie blog...Cassie is a friend and that's what led me to this post. (she's the coolest!) coincidentally I was *just* shopping for some boring twill pants and some tops that will cover my tattoos...for a job I landed. I came right home and found ways to still look like *me* though. This post was a perfect way to end the afternoon. Thanks for sharing. What great style you and all these ladies have!
I was just thinking about this today! :) I sometimes wonder as I move through life if it would be better to just stop being the "weird one" and start wearing jeans and tees all the time. Ditch the pretty heels I love, the skirts, and precious details. But it's only ever a fleeting thought--I love my "pretty" wardrobe and girliness far too much! :) It makes me happy--and funnily enough it makes others happy seeing me! I get so many compliments from others throughout the day on how my dressing has reminded them of a favorite movie, or just brings a smile to their face. :) It's totally worth it! I know this will probably evolve once I hit my 30s and drop the more "twee" aspects of my wardrobe for increasingly more sophisticated looks, but I dare say the allure of pretty and vintage will always entice me...
Aw, it's so sweet of you to mention me! If there's one thing that blogging has taught me, it's to be more secure in my personal style, in all its intense whimsy and girliness. I've got louder and more clash-y and weird in my dress sense as I grow up, and it makes me super happy, honestly. I like pretty things too, I like florals and novelty prints and glitter, and I'm definitely not going to cast them off anytime soon!
I must admit to having thoughts on this topic every so often as well. I sometimes wonder if my bright, vintage inspired clothes and dyed hair are holding me back in my career at all, perhaps meaning I'm not getting taken as seriously. And then something usually happens that makes me realise that that's not the case at all, so I shouldn't worry and just wear what makes me happy. :-) (And as a point of reference, I'm 34 years old and manage a research team at a bank. I figure if they haven't made me grow up yet, they probably never will. ;-)
Wonderful post I often think I should change the way I dress for work, but I don't if people cannot see past my red lipstick and curls I will shock them when I know what the bloody hell I am doing! Hurray for pretty dresses and gorgeous girls who inspire! xx
What a great post. I've always loved vintage things but had a decidedly dull wardrobe. Then AFTER I had kids I stumbled upon the sewing world and realized (after seeing so many beautiful women doing it) that a vintage inspired wardrobe could be worn and worn well in todays world. I love it and feel so much better about myself now that I am wearing what I love.
I sat, waiting, in my daughter's Jeep, parked in a busy suburban parking lot. I began watching men and women, going in and out of Best Buy, Office Depot, and Jose Peppers. Blue Jeans, blue jeans, black stretchy pants, blue jeans. I began to wonder just how many pairs of blue jeans there are in the world? Like some kind of uniform worn by folks who would NEVER agree to the wearing of a uniform. If they were taxed at $1 (or pound or euro) a pair, how long before our countries would all be solvent again? Just a thought.
Great post, Katie! I've been thinking about this lately as I'm trying to get my career to a new place this year, I've been wondering if I should tone down what I'm wearing to fit in more with the very corporate mode of dress that my colleagues favour. I do wonder if my joy at wearing sequined shoes might be misconstrued as a lack of intelligence or ambition. But I honestly don't think I would be, or could be any other way. I don't want to blend in, and I don't want to spend my life in a costume - particularly not in someone else's costume! To others how I dress might seem costumey, but it's me. Someone shared this link with me yesterday and I loved it - you might, too!
http://thegloss.com/fashion/how-to-respond-to-why-are-you-so-dressed-up-844/
"Why are you so dressed up?" - "For LIFE"
When I started turning from "ordinary" clothes towards vintage style I got a lot of that "where are you going dressed up that fancy?". But that has now stopped. People get used to it. Thankfully. Usually I replied "Nowhere particular, I just felt like dressing up this way". That usually shut them up.
Hurrah for this post! Uniformity in dress was never a guarantee of uniformity of thought, but when it is imposed on a population by those in power ( Mao's tunic-and-trousers, any country's military uniforms, some school uniforms) it is an attempt to make us all the same, all interchangeable, all pawns in a game. When uniformity is just a social thing (fashion editors dictating what is "in" or "out") the influence is more subtle but just as pervasive. Sometimes it takes courage to buck a trend. Sometimes you are simply wearing what makes you happy. When you look around and realize that no one else is wearing a duplicate of your garment, or hair style, or shoes, it should not make you want to disappear into the floor or run home to change. (Unless, of course, you are in danger of punishment or death for not conforming.) It should make you rejoice in your individuality! There is certainly a place in modern society for women who like to dress in floral pastel full-skirted dresses; just as there is room for tomboys and minimalists.
I LOVE this post! Thanks for making me feel not so silly for wearing vintage :) I too tend to be dressed a bit "out there" at times for certain events.
I read a similar post a while ago now by a lady who was just entering into the world of wearing vintage (good for her!) and had started wearing red lipstick. She said it made her feel really confident, because she felt like her for the first time in years....until she met up with some friends. Those friends commented so much on how bright and 'out there' her lipstick was that she said she felt almost as though she had dyed her hair green and turned into an all-out punk overnight! (Which would be fine too!) Fortunately, like you she received a tonne of support from readers of her blog. Having got a similar reaction the first time I wore something which didn't conform it reminded me that those who make too much unwanted fuss or openly ask you why you're wearing what you are, are either secretly envious of your daring, or not confident in themselves. Some of them really are friendly and interested. And in my experience elderly ladies always approve of us vintage fans!
Great post. I was just thinking about this the other day, too -- inspired by this similar blog post:
http://virginiasolesmith.com/2012/02/pinning-things-down/ -- and I took the opportunity to really examine how I feel about dressing like this, especially as I slide further into my 30s, heh. I don't think being a grown up means being boring, or not dressing in ways that we love, in clothes that are pretty. All of the vintage styles that all of us love, those were worn by grown up, serious women. There's no reason we can't reclaim feminine beauty as grown women in the 21st century. IMO, feminism isn't (shouldn't be) about forcing all women to wear jeans and pantsuits instead of skirts and dresses. It's about choice, about the right to make our own choices. If our choices involve pretty things, what right does anyone have to tell us that our choice is wrong?
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