Rocking The Casbah!

Wearing these Palazzo pants ended in disaster for Rosemary who fell arse over tit (as we Brits so charmingly say) rushing to catch the train to Liverpool. 

Monochrome pants worn with leather waistcoat (courtesy of Helga), lace body stocking (75p, lingerie stall on market), crochet beret (from Elizabeth) with an antique silver & turquoise brooch (50p, League of Friends back in 2003)

After that unfortunate outing she kindly sent them my way, which, bearing in mind that I'm the clumsiest woman on the planet, could prove to be a huge mistake. I'm currently sporting an ankle support (from an epic platform shoe fail), a broken tooth (from a delicious vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognaise, lovingly prepared by Jon) & just 9 toenails after severing the tenth off at the nail bed after a particularly wild party.

This could be the last time you see me intact!

Barry M's Blueberry Ice Cream nail paint, turquoise rings on index fingers from Valerie & stud bracelet made by Krista, everything else haggled over in India or bought second-hand.

If Rosemary had offered me these pants back in the Nineties I'd have run a mile.

In my early 20s I used to be one of those annoying women who shriek "Oh, I couldn't wear that...I'm too short/skinny/it wouldn't suit me" at anything that was a slight deviation from my usual way of dress. After booking a flight to Morocco in 1992 I discovered from various travel guides that revealing clothes for females were a strict no-no which could result in anything from groping to full scale public abuse. I had to beg, borrow and jumble sale buy some modest attire as my usual uniform of 1960s leather mini dresses, bras as outer wear and lurex hot pants were likely to cause a national outrage.

Me as a 25 year-old natural blonde in Tangier

 After a few weeks of maxi dresses, cheesecloth blouses and wide legged pants I came to realise that less is more wasn't always a maxim to live by and that covering up can be more attractive that letting it all hang out (a defining Ta-Dah moment in my life). I even got presents from random strangers, including my Hand of Fatima pendant I'm still wearing 20 years later.

Being as you asked so nicely Jon braved one of the sheds of shame to dig out our Moroccan travel pictures and I've spent this afternoon scanning some photos. If you can stand over two minutes of old photographs the eagle-eyed amongst you'll notice I was still wearing the very same denim waistcoat way back then, some things never change.

Hope you enjoyed the show.

See you soon!