Everything is Ugly

A little melodramatic, perhaps, but that's how I'm generally feeling about fashion right now. The autumn/winter offerings are starting to appear on the high street (typical, that I start composing this post when its rainy and autumnal, only for it to hot up and seem premature), and in general I'm really not liking what I see. I have always hated the 80s with a passion - and it seems I'm living though Groundhog Decade, as the 80s have been recycled at least four times in fashion within very recent memory. Just when you think that no aspect of the decade remains unresurrected, along come shoulder pads (I remember cutting them out of salwaar kameez despite my mum's protests, with a grimly determined expression when I was 9! I might have to get those scissors out again this season...) In particular, most of the prints I've been coming across are eye-wateringly brash, or just plain ugly (and I love a pretty, unusual and sympathetically coloured, print so this really makes me wince).

I don’t do tough, edgy or power-dressing. I do pretty, quirky, and feminine. I suppose if you have a very distinct style (and I do) then some seasons may chime very well with it, and others, not so much. I have a feeling that for me there'll be slim pickings this autumn/winter. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing, given the mountains of clothes I possess and my general aim to be much more discerning with my purchases, and more inventive with the things I already have.

Until recently I've always considered myself a high-summer person, happiest in vivid colours and floaty summer dresses and sandals. But I was a goth as a teen, so I also love the darkest, deepest shades, as well as black: plum, aubergine, forest green, charcoal and indigo. I love thick tights, boots and the smug, happy feeling you get when trudging through rain in decent boots (and my winter boots are burgundy - I love them so much). Summer brights just don't get much of a look-in the UK, and ultra-vivid colours never seem to fit anyway: in fact, they leave me wistful for another climate and landscape entirely.





Over the next few of posts, I'll aim (really in order to organise my own mind, more than anything else more authoritative!) to give my take on the approaching autumn/winter - starting off with some of the catwalk creations (not necessarily just 09) that have captured my imagination, and a couple of posts on ideas/looks/themes I’ve been mulling over.