Fab Feb - Fashion

Image from Pixabay

✅Fitness - Personal Training
✅Alcohol free
✅Fresh salmon and avocado salsa for dinner

The aim was to do this #FabFeb posting daily but I'm a little behind at the moment. Today I'm sitting through a heap of boring Welcome to Uni lectures I've heard before so will take the opportunity to catch up on these posts, or at least try. 

In my mind my body is still the one of my slender 18 year old self. Today, typical for when I am on campus, I am wearing very faded black jeans, ankle boots, a bright blue peplum sleeveless top and a little 3/4 sleeve black cardigan. I have red framed Burberry sunglasses sitting on my head. I am a bit like the fictional character, Heather Jelly from Seachange, in that I often use glasses as a hair accessory - I hate hair on my face. The practical side of me is strong on this. Heather Jelly couldn't have sunglasses actually over her eyes since they would leave marks where they rested in her nose. I recall this from an interview with Kerry Armstrong, the actor who played Heather Jelly, but I can't find the interview or even a picture of Heather Jelly with the sunglasses on her head.

But back to the clothes. I'll work from the top down. My cardigan is from Sportscraft, once my go-to store for work clothes. I don't know how much the brand has change and how much I have changed but our tastes rarely match anymore. This cardigan is basically one I carry around to cope with excessive air-conditioning. It is quite likely it isn't washed often enough. The peplum top is from Marcs, a brand that doesn't often fit me. Actually, this top doesn't fit as well as it once did but I like the colour and style. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the peplum is a short section attached to the waistline of a blouse, jacket or dress. I used to be silently critical of the peplum style because I viewed it as making one look pregnant, failing to hide but instead drawing attention to bigger bellies. I have since discovered that they are simply more comfortable than tops that hug the tummy too tightly. I'm a little nervous with this particular top because if the peplum portion flies up it will flash flesh, a sight nobody wants to see. Today's bra is a Calvin Klein, one of the most comfortable bras I've ever had. It is cream with a black pattern or floral/botanic something on it (I haven't looked closely enough to know what it is) and it is padded. I want more bras in this style but it is so old the writing has rubbed and/or washed off the label. My jeans are from three houses ago and are wearing thin between the thighs. I think they are from Jeans West which I haven't shopped from since. I picture that their tightness holds all the flabby bits in, making me look svelte and sexy. I ignore the wrinkles obtained from the stretching it's required to do around the abdomen and anyway, I hope the peplum top hides that issue not draw attention to it. My underpants are boring Bonds brand but I have a hierarchy. There are the ones I wear for exercise, that have stretched too much, then there are the older ones still in shape that I wear on an everyday basis and then there are the ones I still consider to be new. My drawer contains a range of more attractive underwear but they were bought in less heavy days. I also have some Spanx I wear under some dresses and skirts. I love how the Guilty Feminist, Deborah Frances-White tells the story of how she once went on a rant about how wrong it is to wear Spanx, that it's bowing to patriarchal pressures to be thin, while wearing the forbidden Spanx. I feel the same way. I am wearing knee-high stockings with boots from Frankie4, a brand that caters for orthotics. I wear thin stockings until my boots stretch over time and then wear socks.

I remember after a lecture at university during the year after I had finished school, I went across to Macquarie Centre. In a shop I spied a white short-sleeve jacket, probably with shoulder pads, given the fashion at the time. I walked into Events (no longer exists), looked at the label ($69) and walked straight back out and smack-bang into a market researcher. With nothing better to do, I agreed to complete her survey. She asked if I ever thought I would buy from this store and I replied it would always be too expensive for my budget. Just a few years later, working in the financial industry (Sydney CBD), Events became a staple of my wardrobe. A few years ago I started buying brands that are even more expensive, inspired by a work colleague. The Burberry sunglasses I'm wearing today being one of the first. At least they've lasted several years. At first I considered it to be a one-off act, or two, then more, but became a habit to the extent that I open the MatchesFashion app nearly every morning to see what's Just In. Such an expensive habit. It's like overseas travel. My first trip beyond New Zealand was in 1998 to Europe. The next was to USA in 2011 but paid by work. I was back in Europe in 2013 to present at a conference, mostly funded out of my own pocket. It was supposed to be a one-off but have then travelled overseas every year since. A small percentage of a couple of these trips were financed by loyalty points but in reality, these trips were way beyond our means. My taste in clothes is way beyond our means. This is partly why our Home Loan Manager said, no more Max Mara for you, Shani. I now save the clothes I like to WishLists where they stay until they sell out.

So I guess part of my #FabFeb challenge is to adjust my thinking about my spending in regards to fashion. And travel. I'm thinking shabby chic needs to make a comeback.