So I decided it was time to share my story with you. I will continue to post as usual. There just may be some personal interludes mixed in with the photographs from time to time. So where do I begin with the story of my wardrobe?
Let me take you back about three years. I was living in Crouch End in north London. It is a wonderful and pretty hidden part of the city, tucked in between Alexandra Palace to the north, Highgate to the west, Finsbury Park to the south and lovely Edmonton to the east. Hmmm. Despite this, it was voted the second most trendy part of London after Hoxton. And I had a small flat there. It was high atop a Victorian conversion, in a pretty street within walking distance to the overland train and the bustling shops and restaurants of the Broadway, as they like to say in the real estate offices. It was tiny but perfect. I had redone the flat so that all the floors were stripped wood, the kitchen had granite worktops and a filter water tap. My bedroom looked out over London, toward the Palace, from where I could watch the annual London fireworks display from the comfort of my chair. And the bathroom was a girl's dream. All roll-topped bath and venetian glass mirrors. And a small entrance onto a roof terrace for the three hot Sundays in the year when sitting outside with the News of the World was about as chilled as you can be. And yet, I was lonely.
And so I shopped and I dreamed. I imagined a lifestyle that required designer dresses, shoes and bags. And over the years I acquired beautiful things that would be worn when I realised that life.
To be fair, at the time I could afford it. I had access to it. And, if I had really chosen to, I could have lived that life. It was right in front of me. But, you see, I am just not that kind of girl. I am a pretty down to earth person, for whom family, friends, fashion, food, music, magazines, love and reality TV are the things that get me excited. I don't really want to be tripping down some red carpet with people judging me. I don't want to be eating at the most exclusive restaurants every night when all I want to be doing is sitting on my sofa and PVR. And yet I imagined living that life, and shopped accordingly.
To be continued...