Underwear, Body Positivity and Ageing

My third piece of The Huffington Post has been published!

This time I'm looking at how you can use underwear to help yourself feel fantastic regardless of the changes your body goes through as we get older.

Personally, I can be quite conscious of the stretch marks and looser skin around my tummy that have been left by my two wonderful pregnancies. Does this mean I don't wear underwear to feel sexy? Quite the opposite!

Dig in and I hope you will find something useful to you :)

Full article here

I've also recently vlogged on this subject - take a look: 

Fall fashion – the 80s are back…

It’s official - the 80s are back this Autumn/Winter, in terms of fashion anyway.It’s about now, as the summer sales start that the fashion industry, which seems to be so far ahead of itself, tempts us with new season collections.

Please remember throughout this post I am not a designer and do not have any expertise here. But I am an ardent consumer, so I have been googling and these are some of the key trends coming our way:

1. The 70s. I think this is a continuation from what we have now in Spring/Summer. And whilst I was a bit young to find my fashion feet in the 70s the first time round, I have been wearing my collars very proudly and channelling my inner Daisy Duke with my denim shorts and knotted shirts.

2. Luxe. I think this means lots of sequins and glitter and luxurious fabrics – I’m thinking embellishment and brocade. I am confirmed dress up girl, so this works for me.

3. The ladylike look – we have seen this trend over the last few years and most of us have a pencil skirt or two in our wardrobes, so I am guessing this will be a continuation of this trend.

4. Black Victoriana. This is where my fashion knowledge falls down. So please correct me if I am wrong. But I feel we have this every winter in some guise. I’m thinking lace, high necklines, and more leather - trendy Penny Dreadful maybe?

5. The wild; more furs (or faux fur in my case) and animal prints. I have a lovely fake fur jacket from Oasis, which is two years old, but this is as far as I go with this trend.

6. And… drum roll….the 80s. It seems that shoulder pads, polkas dots, ruffles and mini proms skirts are back. So here, I am fondly remembering Dallas, Dynasty, Madonna, Bucks Fizz and Bananarama. And if your tastes are a little more edgy, think Siouxsie and the Banshees.

So what is it about stepping back in time? Why is it appealing to the tastemakers? I’m just speculating, but I guess it is hard to completely reinvent fashion year on year.

I also think nostalgia plays a part. Memories are evocative things. Some people have dubbed the 80s as extremely uncool. Personally, I think some people spend too much time thinking about what’s cool and what’s not.

To me, the 80s were all about making a statement. Fashion was big and bold and colourful. Life was vibrant. You dressed up and expressed yourself through your clothes and people loved you for it. I definitely think there was less judgement, or maybe I was just young and didn’t notice or care!

I don’t know what the fashion designers have got in store for us. But I have no doubt that designers like Saint Laurent, Balmain and the very clever High Street brands will have distilled the essence of the 80s and added a few unexpected modern twists.

I personally am looking forward to seeing what turns up in our shops. How about you - are ready to embrace your inner New Romantic?

It’s time for a closet clear out

I have too many clothes. Mostly beautiful dresses I have collected through the years. I’m a sucker for anything in silk, bright colours and unusual prints. But - there are only 7 days a week so clearly there is a limit to how many clothes I can actually wear.

My biggest problem is I don’t like throwing any piece of clothing away and I pride myself on buying things that are timeless. In fact recently I wore a Collette Dinnigan dress that I bought in Australia when my daughter was born – so 18 years ago. It’s looking pretty good (the dress, not me!) and it has the added allure of being vintage now.

It doesn’t matter if it’s high street or designer, every item of clothing gets lovingly welcomed into the Parry fashion family (!!)So culling does not come naturally. This, coupled with a constant stream of new season pieces that are put online week after week to lure me into buying something new and desirable equals a wardrobe slowly descending into chaos and order needs to be restored.

I have a rough plan in my head with four categories: (a) keeping, (b) too threadbare for anyone so throwing away, (c) charity, and (d) worth selling. But how do I get to the four categories?

1. I have to be ruthless. If I don’t love it and it doesn’t fit perfectly, it needs to go. This is a no-brainer.

2. Focus on my own style. I am a dress girl, and more recently a shirt/skirt girl. The point is I am not a jeans girl. I only have one pair of jeans in my wardrobe. So whilst it is nice to go off road now and again, most of us have our personal style figured out.

3. I must be brutally honest with myself. When I do allow myself to buy something new, I must scan my wardrobe for similar items. We all have a tendency to gravitate towards the same colours and shapes of clothes. But how many black leather pencil skirts does one girl need? In my case - three and that’s more than enough! They actually all fit really well, so they are staying.

4. Use good judgment. I personally do not adhere to the “if you haven’t worn it for two years throw it out", I refer to my Collette Dinnigan dress earlier. We don’t need a cocktail dress every day, but it's good to know there are a few in your wardrobe that fit perfectly, ready for the right occasion. However, if you always sidestep a particular item of clothing for something else, it needs to go.

So, my plan makes perfect sense to me. But I have been thinking about how best to dispatch pieces I want to sell, mainly designer clothes that don’t fit or suit me anymore.

Obviously lots of people sell on eBay and similar sites, and there are services that sell your clothes for you and take a commission. But increasingly I am thinking that whilst I would like to make some money from my beloved wardrobe, I would also like to raise some money for charity. So here’s where I need your input.

Current seedling ideas are setting up my own little online “shop” maybe attached to this blog where I could sell a certain number of clothes for a different charity a month or - what I am veering towards is organising a larger sale event with live music (maybe performed by me and various friends/guests) supporting maybe 5-6 charities that are important to me…I know this sounds like a mish mash, but with a bit of focus I think it might be a great event and worthwhile, would you come? Suggestions, advice and thoughts gratefully received here…  

How do you shop the sales?

This may be one for the ladies, but I certainly don’t want to exclude all the very stylish men I know…The summer sales are coming. Many shops are already sending out preview sale invitations with up to 40% off marked prices. And though this used to fill me with great joy, I am under no illusions when I get these invitations; I am not special, I have just done A HELLUVA LOT of shopping in my time, so qualify for a lot of discounts!

I used to love a sale. I mean, who doesn’t love a bargain? The trouble with a bargain is that sometimes we get swept up with the markdowns and end up with more stuff we didn’t need in the first place.

These days, I try to be a little more discerning. The reality is, for me there is less desire to snap something up in an end of season sale - here’s why:

Firstly, because we seem to live with a “get it now” mentality, so if I really lust after something, I try it on and if it fits and I can afford it, I buy it. The justification for buying something full price is that my size may not be there at the end of the season, but to be honest we can all justify whatever we want….Secondly, if I have waited till the end of the season, I obviously didn’t want the, let’s say for instance, dress, that much, so maybe I’m just imagining I want it, because it’s in the sale?

And finally it is END OF season. Clothes that we “ooohed” and “ahhhed” over in January for Spring/Summer are somehow less appealing. And as the fashion industry turns its’ attention to pre fall/autumn collections, we are already being tantalized by new season lines, having not yet made full use of our summer wardrobe.

However, sales do have their place. Nowadays, my strategy is I only really buy special pieces in sales. Luxurious fabrics and beautifully cut dresses or jackets that are timeless.

Like a hawk, I will watch something that was horrendously expensive at the start of the season, which I adored but there was absolutely no justification in handing over my credit card for; I will watch as the price gets slashed.

Sometimes if you can bear the wait beautiful things can be discounted by as much as 80% and snapping them up then, feels so good, I think this may be a legal high...There is of course a gamble involved here so I will also say a little prayer to the shopping angels so that if and when the price becomes affordable, my size is still available.

I am not a fan of buying stuff that sits in your wardrobe unworn, so whatever I buy I wear and I think, some of us can go a little crazy in the sales as it is all cheaper. I must deter you from this - there’s no point buying stuff just because it’s cheaper, unless it’s gorgeous on you of course.

So how you will shop the sales? Do you go crazy or do you have a strategy?

Personally, I have my eye on a pair of Saint Laurent black leather shorts. I have lusted after them for months and my lust is undiluted. I cannot justify them, but I will watch and wait and with any luck, they will come down to a much less eye -watering price…fingers crossed…In the meantime, happy sales shopping let me know what you find…