Blogging is a hobby for me – something that I fit around my day job, which is the one that pays the bills. I’m lucky enough to work at London College of Fashion and, back at the start of December, I popped into a drawing class to see if the students had anything they’d like me to share on the School’s social media. They were all searching for catwalk images on their phones to use as source material for their illustrations and, after introducing me, the tutor commented to the group “actually… she could be a Gucci girl.”
I was flattered, as I consider myself stylish but not exactly fashionable, and thought no more of it until I read Laura Craik’s article for The Pool on the biggest fashion moments of 2015 when a very large blindingly obvious penny dropped.
Even if the clothes had three and four figure price tags that most of us could only dream about, the new-look Gucci Girl was important. Her fey, retro, bespectacled, slightly nerdy appearance trickled down to the high street, and made it okay to wear tweed, ankle socks, vintage fake fur coats and – oh frabjous day – glasses.
This was exactly what I needed to kickstart my style in the new year! How on earth had I missed it in September when Vogue.com reported on the Gucci Spring 2016 show? The glasses, skirts, prints and bows are already a large part of my wardrobe and so I browsed the catwalk gallery looking for inspiration of how I could pull existing pieces together differently.
I went through my collection of scarves and found a few that would look wonderful tied in a pussy bow, looking at the colours in them to see if any new outfit combinations could be tried. I dug out the large fabric rose on a velvet ribbon that I excitedly bought from the V&A shop a few years ago and tried using it in different ways. I paired up skirts, blouses and tops without automatically adding in black. And then I looked at what was missing.
This is where the January sales come in. So far I’ve spent some of my Christmas (and impending birthday) money on a bold print bow blouse from ASOS, plus a full skirt that I’ve had my eye on for ages. I’ve also bagged some Orla Kiely Mary Janes from Clarks, which will hopefully add to the geeky vibe without being too 70s. The black colour is a compromise because I’m not sure that the adorable pink and red pair would go with as many items in my wardrobe. Hopefully my overall look for the next few months will be more Gucci Girl than fashion disaster, but I’ll keep you posted!
Catwalk images via Vogue.com and illustration by Rob Phillips.
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