After complimenting my tan Brics tote and olive gator loafers, a friend teased, 'you should have worked in fashion.' I was, naturally, flattered at this tribute to what she saw as my chicly ways, but love clothes as I do, a career in fashion is not something that had really ever occurred to me. Firstly, while deliberate, I've never thought of my personal style as being particularly adventurous, and secondly, echoes of my mother's voice in my head saying that type of career wouldn't really 'require much brains' would have steered me well out of that lane of aspirations. At various points, admittedly, I have thought of being and doing things that were related to fashion...producing a tv serial on beautiful African jewelery, or even a discovery channel segment on African textile industries. In exceptional moments while growing up I did fantasize about the perks of being Anna Wintour's super-brain mignon or feature writing for some other high fashion glossy, but the idea that these types of work could be considered fluffy or meaningless perhaps robbed me of the gumption to truly pursue them. I've always thought that anything I'd do should be life changing, transformational and at least in part, cerebral. So this odd combination of my love for fashion and the need to do something inspiring could never have led me in that direction.'You could have been a personal shopper.' my friend then quipped and I, in response, snorted...'well, maybe had your own store.' Now that's an idea. Me own a clothing store? No, no, it would have to be a boutique! I suppose it makes sense - my very own giant closet with tiffany blue wooden paneled walls, low hanging crystal cut chandeliers, a zebra skin rug, and decadent scarlet velvet chaises, damask stenciled changing rooms, a mirror coffee table with a black leather lampshade on it, and a copy of 'A Guide to Elegance', and the last five issues of Vogue? To be able to disarm anybody who walked through my doors with the possibility of glamor. To put on the dog, and show the world that the great unwashed, too, can achieve style on a relatively low ticket? Inspire greatness through my rows and rows of shelf, housing delicate cherry taffeta cocktail dresses, and heavy woolen houndstooth shifts, D'Orsay shoes, raw silk hand painted head wraps, Jackie O cockleshell sunnies, and string upon string upon string of pearls? Oh, how pearls thrill me! Could it be, that I could one day usher a young woman into my little shop, and let her see for herself just how a nude ballet slipper, a distressed camel book bag, or a cashmere cowl neck can change a life? Could I do the impossible and perform mass baptism into the world of style by preaching the value of a starched white stiff collared shirt combined with pearl studs?
I am finding, increasingly that I had been wrong, that fashion does offer that revolutionary potential...a clean tailored suit can be an image changed, a confidence buffed, a self belief deepened, a lifestyle altered. But true transformation through fashion is a vocation that requires dedication to detail and a devotion to the agency of change. So I will dedicate myself, through this blog, through my imaginary boutique to learning, and informing and sharing the details and secrets of style. And I hope to share what I know and learn with anyone else who's life has been changed by something as simple as a second hand bejeweled brooch. Chichi's Closet is now open for business.
