Wednesday 7 December 2011

Hipster Or Fancy Dress?

We should all know by now that inappropriate clothing is my favourite kind.

Sky high shoes, ridiculous hats, frilly skirts, unnecessary makeup, side ponytails. It's like every day is fancy dress day for me. Instead of becoming a mature grown-up, I seem to be retreating further into my dressing-up box as the years roll by.

It started innocently enough with my annual pilgrimage to the Secret Garden Party  (where other inappropriate dressers are triumphantly outed in an explosion of glitter and animal masks - allowed to roam free wearing handbags as hats, and knickers as earmuffs) , and now my recent holiday to Williamsburg where daily dress is, quite frankly, bizarre.


But I have to say, sometimes it annoys me on other people. I find it laughable, irksome or at worst  offensive. And we all know I only moved out of Headingley because I was sick of the Otley Run forcing me to queue behind wacky students dressed as smurfs in Safeway every Friday night. Grow up! I thought, hypocritically.

Then I looked back at my own wardrobe.The Frank Usher shoulder pads, the stripper shoes, the garish makeup, the over-sized spectacles.

When does expressing yourself turn into looking a fool? I may not be wearing anything with a press-stud front, or ears, but surely I'm old enough to know better.

This website, say it all really. The line between fancy dress and normal dress has blurred to the point that we can't tell who is taking what seriously anymore. And that's not just in Williamsburg - it's everywhere. I saw somebody dressed as a tiger in Kirkstall Morrisons last week. It's like everybody went to a festival in the summer and just couldn't be bothered to go back  to wearing their normal clothes. 


Maybe it's the economic downturn and we're all craving escapism. Maybe we're in a Peter Pan state of not wanting to grow up.

Or maybe, just maybe, we're all twats.


4 comments:

  1. I love dressing up. I love fancy dress. I love generally just being a bit weird. James embraces some of this, but isn't so sure about other aspects. For example, we're going to Eurodisney this weekend for a precrimbo break and while he fully accepts my need to wear my minnie mouse ears within the park, he's saying I'm not allowed to wear them on the Eurostar on the way there which I think is just mean.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That IS just mean. Minnie ears are a whole catwalk THING now! You tell your James it's just as well he's not going out with Lady Gaga. His head would explode.

    Px

    ReplyDelete
  3. Need the ponycorn. Need it now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And this: "We should all know by now that inappropriate clothing is my favourite kind." is exactly why I love you. Me too, sister! Bring on the freaks, I love them (because I am one!)

    ReplyDelete