Fashion for everyone

These are questions that so frequently spring to mind as I face the truth that I am indeed a woman, with what feels like an indeterminate real age, trapped in the body of a 50 something year old. The mind does not so easily compute what the body has shamelessly accepted and my thoughts refuse to understand that middle age waits for no man. Do I want to dress like a woman approaching her golden years?...I don't think so, yet I don't want to dress like my DDs either.

So here is my answer, I refuse to capitulate, to give in or to concede and 'drab' and 'dowdy' will not be a part of my vocabulary. I will compromise. When I look in the shopfront window and admire something that would have worked twenty years ago I will remember that I have been there and done that. I will enjoy the nostalgic journey for that sake alone and then I will turn tail and search for the thing that will make me sparkle and that will make me happy now; I will rejoice in my maturity. The beauty of fashion is that it is there to adapt - it is for us as individuals to make it work and to make it wearable. Designers create guidelines and trends; I believe it is for women to bend the rules and suit themselves.

How to bend the rules? You can't bend them unless you understand them and it is for that reason that it is important to have a sense of what is a la mode. Along with self worth and confidence, it is vital as women to be aware of the world around us and that includes fashion. We can wear the latest and we should be inspired by the runway but on our own terms. This season I adore the biker come rocker chic look that starred in many Parisian boutiques, but me and a pair of leather leggings, studded boots, ripped tee-shirt and a zippered jacket will never see eye to eye - as much as I might want too. Fast forward and find me a ruffled shirt, a slimline leather blazer, some J Brands and suede high-heeled ankle boots and I might just get away with it.

The French woman has a simple skill that ensures a fashionable look; she knows how to accessorize. Many women in Paris last weekend were wearing the little black dress with multitudes of colourful bangles and the cutest flat boots or they were wearing slim pants and the classic tee with drop dead gorgeous stiletto shoe boots. If I learnt one thing from my people watching it was that I need a pair of boots to update my wardrobe. Whether these women were wearing leather jackets or boyfriend blazers their forms looked edgy. I believe that Parisian women accept fashion as an essential part of life, perhaps it is because their city lives and breathes designers or perhaps it is a legacy from their mothers and grandmothers. They are not afraid to be fashionable and nor are they afraid to dissect a trend and re-interpret it to suit themselves. The French women I observe don't copy a look from head to toe...they know that doesn't work...they shake it up. These women know how to find their strengths and run with them.

So from now on I am going to focus on my strong points. I am not going to feel disappointed or depressed that I can no longer wear what I could. I am going to stop worrying about what has passed and embrace my grown up choices. I am going to change my fashion philosophy; I am going to think like a French woman and live in the present. xv