The End of my Lent Challenge

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you and your families have a happy day.

So I can finally go back to dressing how I want after 40 days of wearing black head to toe. Yippee!

And what have I learnt?:

• The best way to wear all black is to include lots of  different textures.
• The most difficult situation I found was meeting people for the first time or trying to make an impression on people.
•  Our environment has more effect on our style than we think.  

That last point is what I want to reflect upon for my last post on my Lent challenge.

We all know that environment affects dress (Indian people wear loose, cool clothing; Eskimos wear big thick furs.) However, I think there is a deeper layer to how it affects us.

I would say that my style and my passion for fashion has really developed since coming to Preston. I think a lot of that is to do with rebelling against the dull weather, lack of cultural stimulation and grim landscape of the city (excuse my not so positive view of the city.) It would be all too easy to want to blend in and let my clothes reflect this ‘grim northern city’ and… well… wear all black! That isn’t me though. I’ve chosen to stand out and be stylish against the odds.

Emma Watson said in an interview with Vogue this week that she misses British fashion when she is abroad: “I think [British style] has to do with the weather. We have terrible weather. It’s very gray and drizzly so we need things to cheer us up. And I think that leads to a lot of creativity and colour, and I think that’s why our designers are so innovative.”

Just think of wacky Vivienne Westwood and Pam Hogg. Despite our stiff upper lip we also have a slightly eccentric side.

Plus there is so much more opportunity to layer things and get creative with ‘what we put with what’ when the weather is bad than our italian friends who just put on a brightly coloured dress and step out in to the sunshine.

Recently the weather has been pretty up and down. Bright sunshine followed by showers and a warm temperature with a chilling wind. How many people have you seen wearing shorts and t-shirts and then it turns cold and starts to rain?

We love to complain about the weather but we’re not going to let it dampen our spirits.

So resist the temptation to let the Preston doom and gloom get your creativity down. Be a fashion rebel and stand out in bright colours… it’s what us Brits do best!

Forget Preston being your Paris… let Preston be your London (they know how to deal with the weather better.)

The Black (shopping) List

Tired of feeling grumpy about wearing black and feeling positive about only having to do it for one more week (yay!) I’ve decided to turn this whole thing in to something fun. Shopping!

I figured that to save on washing I should probably buy some new black clothes. So here is my wish list, let me know which is your favourite. All the clothes are available from shops that we have in Preston.

 love this jacket from Coco-Boo down Canon Street. 

Ok so it’s not strictly all black but look how pretty it is! Available at Topshop

 It perhaps looks a little bit like a beauticians uniform but I quite like it! Definitely needs some leggings under it though! Available at French Connection or DB3

 Miss Selfridge have some really nice stuff at the moment but unfortunately the nicest stuff isn’t black! So I’ll settle for this instead

Cambridge Girl recommends:

• Miss Selfridge’s vintage inspired range
• Making the best of a bad situation.
• Shopping =)

Lent Challenge Update

Firstly, an apology for not posting in a couple of weeks – note to self: laptops and coffee do not mix!

So… how is wearing black for 40 days going? Horribly. I hate it. I can’t wait til Easter!

It’s so much harder than I thought it would be, perhaps even harder than when I gave up make up last year. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps because I’m daily having to make a conscious effort to do something that isn’t me rather than just leaving part of my morning routine out.

I’ve been thinking a lot about those people who chose to dress in black. I can’t imagine what it would be like to wear a burka for example. Some westerners view the burka as oppressive to women but many Muslim women are happy to wear it, some women even find it sexy that only one man sees their body. However, it is a contentious issue and one that is all about whether there is a choice involved. Nicholas Sarkozy famously called for the burka to be banned in France because it was a “symbol of subservience” which he would not welcome in France. It seemed ironic that he was taking a choice away from women while trying to liberate them.

My mum told me she watched a programme on TV about women who wear burkas a year or so ago and I wish I had watched it too. She said that it was a presented by a Muslim woman who wore a burka and explained what it meant to her and expressed her right to wear it. She also talked about what they wore underneath their burkas, beautiful, colourful Asian clothing. Does it matter what you know you’re wearing more than what other people see you wearing?   

A friend of mine, who comes from a Muslim background once wore a burka for a day to experience what it was like being a Muslim woman. She never wore it again because of the looks she got from people. She told me she felt like everyone was thinking “not another immigrant” when infact she is British born and bred. She felt belittled and self-conscious. Interesting how we view the eastern tradition of wearing burkas as oppresive when for some women it is the western cultural intolerance to it that is oppresive.  

Our relationship with clothes, when we look outside our own little world is so deep.

Chosing to wear black has made me feel grumpy, uncreative and dull.

If someone told me to wear black? Well I think I’d go and put on the brightest piece of clothing I own!

I think I have a real appreciation of my right and my freedom to wear what I want. While I will be judged on those decisions sometimes and while sometimes I have to conform to appropriate dressing, I’m a lucky woman and I can’t wait til I can express that again.

Cambridge Girl recommends:

• Appreciating that you chose to wear what you’re wearing today.

Lent Challenge

The Challenge:

Some of you may know that this blog started about a year ago when I decided to give up make up for Lent.

It was a really interesting experience and gave me a lot of food for thought.

So I wanted to do something again this Lent.

Something difficult and something fashion related.

So, this Lent, in the spirit of self restraint and reflection I’ve decided to wear black.

Entirely black. Nothing but black. No jewellery, no blue jeans, no colour.

For someone who expresses themselves through clothes and has a bright and colourful personality I think I’m going to find this hard.

Read all about it over the next five weeks…