Dressed To Impress (Yourself)

Catching up with my blog reading after an afternoon spent in the pub, I was blown away by a post Hollie published yesterday which mentioned several of my favourite bloggers / ex-bloggers - as well as me!

Aging is what you make it. There are no laws stating that you can't wear certain things after 30 or 40... just fashion magazines that like to tell you how to dress. 

Their words aren't law and neither are the opinions of others.

I'm not afraid to be myself anymore.

I feel as free and as carefree as the teenaged me who used to wear my grandmother's dresses with glitter painted sneakers and feather boas to school.

 But I also think that naturally, the older I get, the less I care about what other people think of me in general. They're not paying my bills, raising my kids or cooking my dinner so poo poo on what they think.

You ladies blog to help inspire other women your age, but never forget that this little girl has been looking up to you cool big kids for years now. I'm inspired and encouraged to embrace aging by staying true to myself. 

You can read the rest of Hollie's post HERE.

As well as being immensely flattered, Hollie hit the nail right on the head. We blog to inspire other women - we don't tell you what to wear, we simply share how us ordinary women, choose to dress on a daily basis. We don't expect anyone to copy, we just want to show that there's an alternative to slavishly following fashion, to conforming to what is expected of us, that you can dress however the f*ck you want and have an absolute blast doing so. 

 Here's just three of the outfits I've worn in the last couple of weeks. Women often approach me and say that they'd love to dress like me but can't as they're not brave enough. Bravery doesn't come into it. Stand up and be different, don't strive to blend in, be true to yourself and not what the style experts dictate how you should be. Like Hollie says, when you do you'll probably be surprised by how many people greet you with praise and compliments and maybe you'll even start to take offence when they don't stare.

WEARING: Vintage Krist of San Francisco patchwork maxi dress (birthday present from Krista back in 2013); 1960s Go-Go boots (car boot sale); Handmade fake fur jacket with bell sleeves (present from Liz);  Indian tribal necklace (present from G&T)

This is what I wore to tazz around the chazzas of the Black Country this morning, a few people commented on how colourful I looked and a very drunk man asked where I bought my jacket from but that was it, nobody laughed or beat me up although the manager of one of the shops did comment that she knew Retro Lady (that's me) would be the only person that would buy the two foot high plastic statue of the Virgin Mary that had been hanging around the shop for a month. I'm predictable in my tastes if nothing else!

Have a fabulous weekend and let's hope that last night's sprinkling was the last of the snow. My suede platforms are starting to gather dust.