BLOG 10: Alert the Fashion Police!

26 March
Blog 10: ALERT THE FASHION POLICE: No Boots and No tights... IN MARCH!
Hey ho... it's March! It's also Northern Europe... so there is no warmth in the sun (well there was a mini heatwave last week but get real all that happened was that we carried our jackets rather than wear them for a few days!). We are not yet ready to scrape our winter wardrobes in favour of the lighter clothes of spring... it's MARCH... still winter to us... and our legs and feet need protection from the cold.

My winter ensemble has always been my favourite... I like the fact the weather allows for the boots. I LOVE my boots... somehow a boot gives leg confidence a mere shoe or sandal could only dream of... suddenly walking in killer heels is a doddle, but above all it's the wardrobe flexibility that makes the boot king.! I have the ankle ones that give a long leg with trousers, I have the knee high ones that look cute with a feminine skirt.. and there are the I even have the thigh highs that somehow give the perfect excuse to shorten my skirt length to giddy heights... helped out by the fact my legs are encased in tights... well... it's not like flashing bare skin is it!

And on that subject...all holla the tights...friend to every woman! (Conversely enemy of every man.. due to the fact they can't get them off... all that nostalgia for stockings is just an excuse ..most men are too young to remember stockings being worn routinely!) I have fine denier tights that give that 1940's stockinged leg look, I have heavy denier tights in bold block colours, I have crazy patterned numbers, cunning opaque numbers, suggestively lacey numbers... and some confidence giving 'if only my legs were this perfect' tights that are fabulous with a short flippy skirt.

And it's March.. the last month of boots and tights, and the weather is encouragingly overcast, windy, drizzly, and PERFECT for tights and boots!

We are months away from short sleeves and bare legs so what is going on with me... WHERE are my tights... WHERE are my boots??

Well they are the latest victim of Captain Credit Crunch!

Yes I was made redundant from my central London job in February....but just because I was made redundant doesn't mean I have to slip into sweatpants and wear my hair in a scrunchy and sit in front of the telly! Besides...daytime TV is FULL of make-over shows... I had no idea there were so many! I knew we were in the age of Gok.. and even the age of the less revered Trinny and Suzannah... but believe me EVERY other programme in the day time is hammering home the message that we must know the value of self image to us... you have to feel good about yourself to be able to project who you really are to others. It's about marketing yourself.

And of course marketing yourself to others is what us redundant folk do... we spend all day trying to convince people that we are what they need. Hard to do that if you catch sight of Waynetta Slobb in the hallway mirror!

And so I never depart from my morning routine. I have a shower. I spend 1/2 an hour with the GHD's. I do my make up... (so have got the no-make-up make up look down now!)... I choose a few tops for my trade mark layered tops look... then I slither into my jeans... and TRAINERS!

Six weeks ago whilst gainfully employed...I teetered into work in a variety of ensembles...from micro mini's with patterned tights and high heeled boots , to culottes with opaques and knee high boots to oxford bags with ankle boots Monday to Thursday. And come Dress Down Friday... and even then my killer heels accompanied my jeans.

It was the norm in town. I enjoyed the chats with other women... 'where did you get that'... "love the way you wear that!'. Half the thrill of putting on an outfit for work was what the other girls had to say about it. I admit it.. I had been known to make unessential trips to other floors if I felt that outfit was really working for me that day!

Yup... captain credit crunch has taken away my stage! Being made redundant has a lot of issues, but I wasn't anticipating this one...I never knew it before but work was my catwalk!!!

Try as I might, the uniform for the unemployed is a much more casual affair....heels and hosiery not required.

It's been six weeks now, and I leave the house every day... to keep sane believe me you find an outdoor task daily ... and there is no one between the hours of 10 and 5 in tights and boots! I see the commuters pass my house... I see the females of the species in opaque tights and little skirts... I hear the sound of heels on asphalt... and I sigh. I hear and see this only till 9am, and don't again till those same boots come home again. From the last fading click click clack running for the 9.01 to London I enter the land of the purposeful walking shoe and denim clad legs...... there is no need for the non-working to slip into anything less functional.

I had no idea that tights and heels were the remit of the working woman only! No one click click clacks during the daytime in suburbia. No one shows a multi-coloured ankle let alone thigh. Its a whole new uniform! We the recently unemployed have standards for sure. We cannot let our standards slip - it is important we look good so we can feel good whilst fighting the good fight to get back into the work place. The code is clear: Make up - Yes. Groomed - certainly. Well turned out - absolutely. But heels and nylons?... NO!... to wear these in suburbia has a whole load of unpleasant implications abut how you are making ends meet! So unless you are rushing for the 9.01....you need a damned good excuse to slip on those babies no matter HOW good they make you feel.

My only hope is one of my nine hundred and four CV's will produce an interview before spring. Oh... the clothing opportunities such an event will bring! To stand again on the platform with the high heeled and hosiery wearing again! To be one of them again even just for an hour... to be able to be surrounded by inspiration from other women! To walk into an office and pass an admiring eye over a pair of Carvela's or a colleague-to-be's Wosleys... oh interview PLEASE come before the flip flop returns!

For all the things that would motivate one back into the work place who knew mourning for a 3 inch Miss Sixty heel or a pair of patterned Charnos would have a part to play?!