One of my grandmothers had a lot of clothes. Some of them looked great for that time – I remember some dresses made of silk in a variety of colours, some embroidered with flowers, others without any specific print, which stayed in the wardrobe and I could see from time to time. I wished that I had those kinds of dresses, even if I was just 10 years old. When I asked her why she did not wear them every day she told me that they were ‘for keeping’. Meaning for “holidays”, “for very special occasions”.
I imagined myself wearing some of those dresses and my mother’s heels (which I did eventually put on and then broke). I promised myself when I was young that I would wear everything I had, put on whatever I wanted, the way I like it even if there is no holiday.
I also had the good fortune to have a mother who would create a new dress for me every week, bought matching sandals and handbags and made sure I sometimes had a scarf around my neck or in my purse. Yes, I also had a pacifier in my purse, but you could not see it☺. All of these made me, in my adult life, continue to do what I had seen at home and what I have always wanted: to be like those magazines (the few of them) that my mother brought to me, like in the sketches she drew, like in the books that I read.
I have always believed that we should dress every day as if it was a holiday, to feel good about ourselves, to have that je ne sais quoi. It did not come out as indented every time, but the intention was always in my mind.
A few years ago, someone asked me why I dress the way I do, did I think I was on the catwalk? I did not answer ‘Yes’, the way I wanted to, I just asked him back: what do you mean?
It is up to us how we dress, whether we do it as if there was a holiday every day or a funeral, or we save something ‘for keeping’. People will always judge but the holiday spirit is generated by us.