Birkin' mad

So I created this blog to have a place to rant about my attempts to have fashion in my life on a day to day basis despite the worlds attempts to stop me and force me into the same boring old clothes day after day. However this particular rant is more aimed at others as sometimes well life is unfair and sometimes we need to moan about that.
Whilst at work recently (stuck in the uniform mentioned previously), I spotted a Birkin. Now if your reading this blog then you really should know what one of those is, so I'm not going to go into details about this most famous of bags. What I am going to tell you is that said Birkin was being carried around proudly by a woman in a rather awful black tracksuit and some nasty trainers. So this leads me to my rant. Do people think that if they carry a designer bag, the more expensive the better, it means that they can let the rest of themselves go. Is carrying a Birkin, which carries with it a whole load of messages, a great excuse to just shove on whatever old thing is lying around and head out the door, holding your head up high because although you look like crap, your carrying a Birkin therefore you must be better then everyone else.

To me the girl who has made an effort with her complete outfit, and spent a bit of time expressing her personality through her clothes, no matter what price they were, is more fashionable then the woman with an expensive handbag and the ugly tracksuit. Even if I don't like what shes wearing, if shes making a statement and expressing herself through what shes wearing then the girl whose made some effort gets my respect.
A Hermes Birkin is the ultimate luxury handbag. They are hand-crafted, made and delivered to the Hermes stores at random and require you either signing up to a waiting list or being famous. Carrying one says 'I have enough money to spent on one of these and I actually managed to get one'. It has status and screams wealth, however carrying one does not automatically give you taste or fashion sense.

I also had another thought as I admired the bag, and that was that surely the bag deserved better. I'm not saying you have to dress in couture for a trip to the shops but if you're going to carry the Birkin then surely you could make a tiny bit more effort. Nice dark jeans and a crisp white shirt would look classy and is easy to pull together.

Fashion is about style, its about expressing yourself and who you are. Wearing labels should be done with an appreciation for the designer and the other creators behind what you are wearing. Fashion is not about shoving an expensive handbag on your arm and forgetting the rest. Fashion is about creation, imagination and style. Wearing a Birkin with a tracksuit says many, many things, but style is not one of them.

Uniformity.

This post/rant is provoked, surprise, surprise by work. Not however on the actual act of work but on fashion in the workplace. Much like my previous post on the whole nothing but the suit problem, it is hard to express yourself with your clothes when you are so limited by rules and regulations. Where I currently work I have to wear a uniform and beyond that there are yet more rules about what you can wear to accompany that uniform. I understand all the rules and the reasons behind them, as always, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about them. Some people like a uniform as it makes dressing easy for them, they wear what they're told and thats that. Those of us that love fashion have other ideas and like to have some freedom of choice on what we put on in the morning. The main point of a uniform is to make everyone look the same, which to me is a majorly depressing thought. I know that its for a reason in a job so that you look like you work there and aren't just wandering around but there is little freedom in that uniformity and after a while it gets depressing always wearing the same thing. Every morning I look at the clothes hanging in my wardrobe, the odd thing still with tags on and wish I could get the chance to wear them and then go back to the same old thing and trudge out the door.
The uniform is, for anyone who loves clothes and fashion very frustrating and when companies make no effort to make them flattering or fashionable it makes it even harder. What can you do with a unfitted, unflattering shirt in a colour that doesn't always go with everything and that isn't even in your size?
I remember many, many years ago when the dated and not very pleasant Brownies uniform was given a fashion makeover by Jeff Banks. The button up dark brown dress was gone and in its place, polo shirts, hoodies, and t-shirts that were more modern and much more appropriate for young girls and all the activities that being in the Brownies involves. So why don't companies that have uniforms do something similar, why not look at what would look smart and professional, what would make the staff look and feel good and therefore perhaps work with more enthusiasm. Companies just go for what is cheap and easy to produce and the staff just put up with it. All those years at school where you rolled your skirt up to make it shorter, wore the biggest high heels you could and made the most out of things like bags and pencil cases are gone and so they should be. After school the uniform should be no more. Once you become an adult your clothing should be your own choice and that freedom should be there to let you have fun with who you are and the clothes you wear.

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Not so Suited and Booted.

So the blog, something this wannabe writer should have embraced quite some time ago. Lack of inspiration, lack of motivation, who knows what else I can blame it on but here I am now with a blog where I will document my stuggle for fashion. I, as Gwen Stefani once sang, am "just a girl", living my life and stuggling to find a place for my love of fashion in my days. Between long working hours, having to function on public transport on a day-to-day basis and living in suburbia, there never seems to be a chance for me to really dress they way I want, to really cut loose and enjoy fashion in all its forms.
I love clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery, make-up and everything else that comes with. I devour fashion magazines, visit all the best websites and love to shop, especially when the seasons change and all the pretty new things are coming in to stock.

However my love of fashion, in particular the more extreme side of it, piles and piles of costume jewellery, big, big heels, combining prints and just in general experimenting with clothes as much as I can, all these things don't seem to be allowed. Uniforms, long walks, rules and regulations always seem to stop me from being myself. This is where I will turn to rant and rave and get all my moans off my chest.

My first gripe was triggered by a job interview I went to recently. I turned up on time, looking very smart in a pair of wide leg smart black trousers, a white shirt pulled in with thin red belt and a pair of patent black closed toe heels. I knew I had to look smart and pretty much a blank canvas, job interviews are most definetly not the place to express yourself through fashion. I thought I pretty much hit the nail on the head for a smart interview look and the woman who interviewed me seemed to really like me and told me I'd be back for a second interview, however she requested that I wear a suit for the occasion and then informed me that I would be expected to wear a suit every day on the job. This is not a high-powered position, its more front of house and although I understand that its important to be smartly dressed if you are the first person the client sees, I also understand that there are many, many ways for a woman to look smart without having to wear a suit.





I don't really like suits, for myself. Certain suits on certain people look great. A handsome man in a well made suit is always a welcome sight. A classic womans Yves Saint Laurent trouser suit looks fantastic and on occasion a suit is the right thing to wear. However finding a suit to fit me has always proved impossible and as of right now I only have one, which is quite masculine in its shape and really just drowns my 5ft 2 frame. In order to take this job I would need to invest in a new suit and to get a good one I would have to spend a reasonable sum of money, something that right now I'm not sure I'm prepared to do given that I would rather spend my hard-earned cash on completely unpractical but fabulous shoes and bags that don't fit all the essentials in them.

My main problem with this whole thing is that I find it ridiculous that a company can tell a person what to wear and not provide those clothes. They are basically asking me to wear a uniform so that their front of house staff present a consistant image. But yet they expect me to pay for this uniform out of my own pocket.
I know this means I get a bit more choice about what I wear but I don't want to wear the same clothes as them. I want to be myself and I would really like to wear some of the gorgeous and smart work clothes I have that aren't a suit. A suit to me is a statement and should be worn as such. It shouldn't be cheap and it shouldn't be a uniform.

I know that this isn't a creative job and therefore the freedoms of dress those kind of jobs allow are not going to be the same but really, is it much to ask to be allowed to be yourself for the 40 hours a week they expect you to be there for.

As for the job, well who knows? But their outdated and stupid rules are definetley putting me off this career move.