Beach perfect O
ABBEY CLANCY LOOKS STUNNING MODELLING HER LATEST RANGE OF SWIMWEAR FOR LIPSY. EMMA JOHNSON TAKES A LOOK
NE of the very few joys of lockdown
– I realise there were not many – was not having to endure pictures of stars frolicking on sandy white beaches popping up all over my social media and the gossip mags as holiday season kicked in.
Because for a short time at least, celebs were just like us and despite their wealth, they too were confined to their homes. Well mega mansions.
But it didn’t take long for them to start jumping on their private jets and superyachts the minute nations started lifting the travel bans.
In normal summers, this would be fine, most of us would be doing the same ourselves albeit on a busy easyJet flight rather than a G5. Except this is far from a normal summer. In fact the word normal has lost all meaning in 2020.
Among my circle of friends, thanks to a mix of quarantine rules, cancellations and fear of catching coronavirus, not one has managed to leave these shores.
Last month my own trip to Ibiza (booked in January btw) was scuppered by the Foreign Office throwing the island, where coronavirus cases are barely in double figures, in with mainland Spain when it was dumped from the UK’s air corridor list of ‘green’ countries.
So instead of frolicking off Formentera with Kate Moss – she was there, who’s to say this would not be the moment for us to become friends? – I spent most of last week dodging downpours in Tenby.
What has this got to do with fashion you ask? Holiday clothes that’s what.
No offence to Tenby – which is beautiful – but my summer getaway wardrobe is about clubbing and cocktails not running with a dog on a beach in the rain.
I had two choices. I could park all those carefully curated holiday frocks I had been collecting since the beginning of the year in the hope they see the light of day next summer. A sort of sartorial gap year if you like.
Or I could just wear them anyway.
I went for the latter and for four days was officially the most overdressed woman in Wales.
Bias-cut slip dress and heels for dinner in a pub? Why not? Floaty midi and strappy sandals for pizza and wine? You betcha. If the sun had stayed out long enough I would have been wafting up and down Saundersfoot beach in a leopard print bikini and matching embellished kaftan. Oh, and I had statement jewellery and co-ordinating handbags.
After five months when reasons to wear anything more glamorous than a hoodie and joggers were few and far between, swishing around in pretty frocks and heels felt great.
Well apart from when I was trying to navigate the cobbled streets, but you can’t have everything. I came home from my little staycation a changed woman.
As we look ahead to an autumn/winter where local lockdowns could be the norm and have been told we might have to sacrifice ‘pubs for schools’, I have decided I am never going to miss an opportunity to ‘get dressed up’.
No longer am I saving clothes for ‘best’, or for a ‘special occasion’ because after what we have all been through, if you are lucky enough to be able to leave your house and have somewhere to go – be that a beach day, barbecue or just a socially distanced stroll with a friend – it is special.