IT’S LOCKDOWN... OF A FASHION
IN CASE you haven’t been keeping count, this week marked our 100th day of living in lockdown. I know it seems like longer. Or shorter? Or, um... oh, I don’t know. Time has lost all meaning now.
The figure has prompted examinations of the many ways in which our lives have changed during that period. Countless column inches have been devoted to the things we can no longer do (hug each other), the things we are now expected to do (wear masks), the government decisions and of course the coronavirus figures and the many heartbreaking losses the country has suffered.
I won’t be addressing any of that here. Fashion column remember? We covered this last week.
Instead, I have taken the opportunity to examine my own 100 days in lockdown from a style and beauty perspective – the good, the mad and the ugly.
The good? Well you don’t need me to tell you that not having to apply a full face of slap every morning is something of a joy.
And thanks to a selfie ring light positioned over the camera of my laptop I manage not to look like an extra from The Walking Dead on video calls (how do you think beauty vloggers look so good in their videos?).
I am not saying I have ditched make-up completely. But I haven’t touched a mascara wand or an eyelash curler in more than three months. Interestingly my lashes have never looked thicker or longer. Just sayin’.
I have also rediscovered the joy of bathing. In life B.C. (before Covid) baths were few and far between. Who normally has the time to laze around in scented water reading a book and contemplating their toenails?
I won’t call it ‘self care’, I am a little superannuated for such a millennial term, but I’d advise you not to ring me between 6 and 7pm on a weekday.
Speaking of toenails. Thanks to the enforced lockdown and the fact that I barely wear shoes of any kind, let alone high-heeled ones, I now have 10 of them, all perfectly squared off and painted scarlet.
If the idea that I should have any less than that comes as a shock, then you have never danced until dawn in a pair of stilettos.
To the mad, now, and I appear to have developed a potentially expensive addiction. And that addiction is gold hoops. I blame Instagram adverts. You look at one little pair of earrings and the floodgates to a universe of jewellery designers swing open.
I was up to five pairs at the last count. I know this has to stop and it will. Just as soon as my Rachel Jackson Rockstud hoops arrive. One last fix, I promise...
As for the ugly. One word: scrunchies. Yes that much-maligned hair accessory last seen being dissed by Carrie in Sex and the City circa 2003.
Scrabbling in my handbag (remember when we used to carry handbags?) for a lip balm a few weeks ago, I came across one, which I guess was a PR freebie and slipped it on. It was cute, it was comfy and no-one could see me, right?
Then, lo and behold I read this week that global search platform Lyst reports that searches for scrunchies are up 27% month on month.
I am bang on trend.
I am not sure this is what people mean when they talk about the lessons of lockdown, but it could be worse, I could have started wearing tie dye.