Style statement

So I've been reading a lot of blogs and forums recently that say that if you have a clearly defined style statement, you a) won't come home with clothes you don't actually want to wear, and b) looking into your wardrobe in the morning will be less tragic because everything will more or less fit together. That all seems pretty logical to me, and it's more or less what I've been doing for a while now. Here's a brief summary of what I have in mind when I go shopping:



So I guess that sweet pink spot in the middle is something like "Cool French Ballerina Who Spends Her Time Off-Duty Buying Clothes From 109". It's a little nebulous. I also take excursions to "Cool French Girl Goes To The Mediterranean Coast To Summer" and "French Girl Gets A Bit Trashy" when things get summery/go a bit wrong. I guess one of my major issues is that all three of those categories in the picture up there imply a preternatually thin woman, which is something that I don't embody at the moment. (But! I'm more than 25% of the way to my goal weight! Shoop da woop!) So I tend to delay buying clothes, because I figure they're not going to fit me if I keep losing weight, and anyway, fat girls can't really be CFBWSHTO-DBCF109, so save the money for now. This means that I tend to interpret CFBWSHTO-DBCF109 as dark jeans, ballet flats and tank top, bulked out with accessories.

Accessories are my bread and butter while I lose weight, and I like to find ones that fit the category perfectly. Ballet flats are a natural fit, and I am always expanding my collection. (Just bought two more pairs from ASOS half an hour ago.) I also like Chanel-ish flap bags, scarves, and sparkly jewellery. One of my favourite pieces is a Chanel-like camellia necklace that I bought from Misch Mash in Fukuoka (thus covering both the French and Japanese aspects.)

The other nice thing about the style statement is that it tends to restrict your colour palette, which again leads to greater harmony amongst the individual wardrobe items. Mine is more or less black, white/cream, pale pink and stripes. You know what Japanese brand is all about these things? Delyle. Oooh, how I love Delyle. Chanel-inspired clothes at High Street prices.





See? Classic, but cute and youthful. It doesn't take the ballet component into account, but not every outfit has to. I get more into the ballet thing in autumn/winter, with scarves and layering. I'm quite looking forwards to getting back into cardigans again.

There's this book at Amazon that deals with this sort of thing exactly, but instead of a narrative like I have above, they help you come up with two words that encapsulate your life. Eek. That sounds a bit bit frightening to me. You seem to come away with a term like "Natural Simplicity" or "Enduring Bold", which all seems a little obscure to me. If it was available on Kindle I'd get it, but until then, I'll just be a little intimidated by it.

All in all, I like the notion of buying within a theme you love, but I think it's also important to break out of the mold every so often. Really love that long Indian-inspired skirt? No sweat. French Girl's Ballet Company Tours Mumbai And She Brings Back A Souvenir. The most important thing, I think, is just to make sure that if you buy clothes that you LOVE them. It's easy to put together an outfit when you love everything you own. It's much harder to do it with pieces you're only partly enamoured with.

*****

I'm going to go see a movie BY MYSELF this afternoon - In The Loop, as alluded to in my previous post. It's been a while since I've gone to a movie by my lonesome but I'm actually quite looking forwards to it. If anyone wants to join me, though, Paradiso at 3.15. See you there (no, I bet I won't, but never mind.)