Guardian Girl

Finally, the last day in Stevie Nicksdale cometh. Without wanting to be unkind to myself, it’s an image I haven’t mastered well.

Part of the problem is having the right tools for the task. Yesterday I failed on the Hammer-pant score, today I failed on the leather-pant front. I’ve never much wanted to succeed with either anyway. My outfit today ended up as a dress with leggings underneath and a pair of ill-matching shoes, topped with a denim jacket – nothing like what I saw in the magazine but it’s the closest I could get, guv. It’s certainly nothing SN would wear at a festival.

Dreams

Nightmares

Since the outfit lacked authenticity I decided the carpet was important, and invited my esteemed and patient friend Cari on a search for the perfect pub floor. We found it quickly in a place on Praed Street and popped in for a glass of wine and a chat about size zero before the ‘shoot’ commenced. We talked about this blog and the idea of recreating outfits on a size-14 body that have been styled to hang well on a size-zero frame. I’m no size-zero militant – I think models should be available in as many shapes, sizes and colours as the clothes they wear, and if some of them are stick-thin, that’s fine by me – some women are stick thin. But it does get worrying when all you see, page after page, are generic, bony-looking girls wearing clothes that just wouldn’t look good on even a size-10 woman. Cari had some interesting thoughts to share on the matter, accepting that skinny women will always be used to show off the shape and cut of a designer’s clothes and saying that we need to dissociate our beauty ideals from that imagery rather than try to quash it altogether. Neither of us could work out how to do that easily, though. I’m wary of this blog becoming too weighted (excuse me) towards discussing the size of models versus ‘normal’ girls, as there are many writers doing a far better job of that already. I contemplated ignoring the matter altogether but decided that would be dishonest in a blog that is all about dreams, reality, the media and comparisons. I hope I’ll be able to strike a balance by dealing with the fat/thin thing when it’s really relevant and ignoring it when it’s not.  I’m already surprised at how often it’s cropped up, but then, as Cari says ‘who cares if you have to buy a pair of sandals that you think look better on thin ankles? Just style them well and have a bit of fun, they’ll look great.’ Wise words, wise lass. I’ll link to her blog as soon as she starts it.

PS Cari is a tall, curvaceous (and not euphemistically) size 12 and has a pair of cropped leather trousers she looks amazing in. Point taken.

Conclusions:

• I guess if I really wanted to nail this style, I’d just have to bite the bullet and buy myself some harem pants, a pair of leather trousers, a cropped, frilled jacket and a top hat
• I don’t really want to nail this style
• Menswear starts tomorrow, yay!