How bad-ass are these women? I found them on the consistently rad Teenage blog where there’s a whole series of awesome 80s female punk fans.
It’s not really connected, I suppose, but I’ve been thinking a lot about ~~personal style lately. It’s not a New Year resolution or anything of that nature, more a dawning realisation that I’m a year off 30, have a proper job where I need to go to srs meetings (at least sometimes) and probably shouldn’t base my outfit ideas around teenagers. From the 80s or otherwise.
It feels like I’ve taken half my wardrobe to the charity shop over the last few weeks through a combination of being really bored of my clothes, needing to do a bit of a clearout and not fitting into things anymore (all that hiking over cliffs in Whitby paid off). I now have a (slightly less full) wardrobe full of things I feel ambivalent about but that ‘do’ for work and things I love and wear all the time – with a lot of space for some new sensible purchases.
I’m definitely more about quality than quantity now, but it’s the ~~personal style bit that I’m struggling with. Sometimes I want to just be a teenage goth and wear dungarees and a beanie and sometimes I want to be COS/Whistles grown-up like Iso and other proper adults.
Does the answer to this come to you in some 30-shaped lightning bolt from the sky? Because I really care a lot about what I wear and the clothes I buy, but there doesn’t seem to be any regular pattern to any of it.
Do you have to make your mind up?
At 28 (and as a former raging riot grrrl type) I struggle with this a lot. I’m digging the Matchbook magazine lady/modern prep look lately, but something about fetishizing J Crew makes me throw a little bit in the back of my mouth. I’d like to populate my closet with pencil skirts and draped blouses I think. That feels like enough of a “thing” that be a consistent recognizable personal style without looking like a middle aged professional.
I really feel the work work uniform vs IRL style is the hardest part.
Goodness knows i’m like some weird 50’s housewife come Kevin & Perry Go Large 90’s throw back. I feel ya homes.
Twin you are always immaculate! But I do love your description… I feel a collection coming on xx
I’m turning 30 at the end of the month & I stil haven’t figured this out. I work in educatiom around people who lookalike they stepped out of a J Crew catalog (current & 1980s) and all I want to do is wear 1930s dresses and big hats. Oh well.
And these photos! My hometown! The one on the teenager blog of the three people on the balcony at Fitzgeralds – that is still a venue (it’s this amazing old 100 year old house and when your in the upstairs space the floor shakes and dips with the music) and I have seen many a punk show there and sat on that balcony smoking cigarettes.
[…] thing that gets in the way of my attempting to dress like an adult (see previous post) is my penchant for gnarly […]
[…] from my usual style, but this season I’ve been wearing quite a lot of plain jersey bits (see previous post on attempting to dress like an adult) which would be the perfect complement to a statement piece like […]
[…] favourite accessories in the world at the moment and if trainers and space don’t say ‘grown-up wardrobe‘ I don’t know what […]
[…] I’ve never been particularly concerned about getting old – ask me again in a few months when the big 3-0 is looming closer, but generally it doesn’t phase me too much; perhaps because I’ve always admired the style of older ladies. I don’t mean nanas (although obviously there’s a lot to be said for nana-chic), more proper adult grown-up women – because as we know, I never feel too much like a grown-up. […]