Nov 10, 2012

Style and the Scarf

Being a fashion blogger, I have a keen eye for stylish sartorial statements.

Yesterday I found myself walking behind the most stylish, glamorous woman I've seen all year. She was young, thin and tall, with long brown hair and the sort of drapey, silky, flowing clothes that look so good on tall thin people. There was a light drizzle coming down, and she had a silk scarf over her hair. Yes: retro style, knotted under the chin, like Grace Kelly going shopping or Queen Elizabeth walking the corgis.

It looked gorgeous.

Frankly, also a little affected.

But still gorgeous.

In the moments I was walking behind this woman I wondered if I could affect a silk scarf myself, to stop my hair frizzing up in the drizzle. But I immediately scotched it, because scarves worn this way are definitely for the young (and stylish). I'm at the age now where a silk scarf over my head is going to make me much more Queen Elizabeth than Grace Kelly.

It's not fair!  When I was young it was the nineties and grunge was the thing. Being glamorous and dressy was as outlandish as wearing a clown suit. Or if we were working and had to dress up, it was all boxy minimalist suits in navy and mustard. I spent most of my youth wearing baggy hippy dresses and Doc Martens.

I got stylish when I lived in Europe, but our clothes were still nothing like the gorgeous stuff all the young girls are wearing today. Certainly headscarves were just not a thing.


How I imagine I'd look wearing a head scarf:

Image by 
Michal Marcol FreeDigitalPhotos.net


How I would actually look:



So then I walked into my building and into the elevator to go back up to work. As the doors were closing a clacking of running heels sounded so I held open the doors - and in stepped the lovely woman who was every bit as gorgeous and silky chic from the front as from the back.

"Oh thank you!" she said with a genuine smile, and stepped politely to one side and behind me in the elevator. It was the move that nice people make when you let them into a lift, which says "thank you for letting me in; to show my gratitude and in recognition of the milli-seconds of extra speed and solitude you have given up in this lift, I will stand completely out of your way and let you get out first if we both get off at the same floor."

So I stood there in my favourite current outfit I had worn happily all morning, suddenly feeling like the frumpiest, dumpiest woman to ever stand in a lift.  So that was nice!


Seen anyone stylish lately? 
Would YOU wear a headscarf?


No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...