ALL DRESSE
After a year of dowdy dressing in the UK it’s time to glam up! Here, five writers — ready for anything from birthdays to book launches — reveal their ‘re-entry outfits’
WHAT are you wearing? A trivial enough question, pre-Covid days, designed to avoid sartorial clashes or clangers. But now, with Britain’s end of lockdown finally in sight and calendars being filled with dates for get-togethers outside from April 12, women across the country are excitedly planning their ‘re-entry outfits’. Namely, what to wear on that first special occasion when they are reunited with friends and family.
Here, five writers share their ‘re-entry outfits’ and reveal the special social occasion that will truly signify that life has returned to normal . . .
A PRETTY DRESS CRUMPLED BY FAMILY HUGS Clare Boyd
SECONDS after Boris Johnson had delivered his roadmap-outof-lockdown announcement, I frantically typed a group WhatsApp message to my family. It was an invitation to a birthday bonanza at my place, on June 26, to celebrate the many birthdays we have missed: my cousin’s son’s fifth birthday, my daughter’s 12th, my sister’s boyfriend’s 50th, my husband’s 53rd, my mum’s 72nd and my aunt’s 73rd.
Their replies were instant and filled with hearts and happy tears emojis. All of us with empty diaries, all of us recognising what we’ve been missing.
Ordinarily, over the past year, we would’ve celebrated their birthdays at mine, with crust-free cucumber sandwiches, Iced Gems, Quavers and cake, washed down with tea or bubbly. To make up for it, on June 26 I’ll be dragging the gazebo from the shed, unfolding the trestle tables, throwing tablecloths, hanging flower garlands and switching sandwiches for barbecued burgers.
And I can’t wait to dress up in my summery maxi (by Hale Bob) to feel floaty and feminine and pretty again.
Picturing my family piling into my home brings tears to my eyes. In my mind’s eye, they’re interrupting each other, talking, laughing, smiling with delight. Together, finally.
In truth, we could order in pizza and slop about in our trusty old tracksuits and the party would be just as wonderful.
There’s no doubt, I’m looking forward to feeling pretty again. But I hope that by the end of the day, my dress will be smeared with the kids’ sticky handprints and crumpled by big bear hugs from the grown-ups, marked by the love of my family.
And only then will it feel like the most beautiful dress I have ever worn. O CLARE BOYD is author of The Pretty One (Bookouture, £8.99).
SAVING THE PLANET IN MY GUCCI TROUSERSUIT Lorraine Candy
GETTING really dressed up has been one of the great joys of my life, so much so that I’ve made a career out of it.
As the editor of Elle magazine, I sat in the front row of international fashion shows for more than a decade and was lucky enough to wear some of the world’s chicest designer clothes.
But just as the pandemic hit, I left my job in fashion to become a writer and podcaster. Overnight, I went from
Prada to PJs in order to make a long-held ambition come true and finally finish a book.
Obviously, you don’t need to look glamorous for book writing, hence the daytime PJs — but you do need to dress up for book selling. And that’s the event I’m nervously gearing up for: the launch of my first book at the end of April.
I’m giddy with excitement about getting ready to go somewhere other than the school run, the supermarket or yet another dreaded walk.
I want to leave the house looking elegant rather than ordinary. I can’t wait to celebrate something, anything.
But what to wear? The answer isn’t obvious, because in my year away from fashion my attitude to the industry has taken a turn. And this is thanks to my two teenage daughters, the very people I have written my first book about.
Like most of their friends, my girls, now 17 and 18, refuse to buy anything new. All their stuff is preloved or vintage, bought in charity shops or from retail apps specialising in second-hand pieces.
They’re saving the planet one small step at a time. But I want something extra-special for the biggest moment of my mid-life career, and, frankly, I’m not going to find it in Oxfam! ‘Rent something, then,’ chorused the girls, and because I’m a bit scared of them (as all mums of teen girls are), I turned to two new rental sites recommended by fashion insiders — MY WARDROBE HQ and ByRotation. Both are easy to use, swift to deliver and offer a huge choice, and I chose MY WARDROBE HQ to rent the career rebirth outfit of dreams: a Gucci trousersuit. I’m saving the planet, looking glamorous and achieving a parenting miracle: pleasing my teenage daughters. O MUM, What’s Wrong With You? 101 Things Only Mothers Of Teenage Girls Know, by Lorraine Candy, will be published by 4th Estate in June.
LONGING FOR A DATE AND A DESIGNER BAG Liz Jones
THIS outfit isn’t subtle. It screams: 1. Thank God it’s over! 2. I really need to carry a designer handbag! 3. I need to feel a man’s hand in the small of my back, guiding me to a corner banquette for a romantic dinner!
Like most of us, I’ve spent the past year not wearing make-up. Every single day I have pulled on a pair of jodhpurs with holes at the knee. My feet, devoid of my usual monthly pedicure, have gone native.
I have hairy knees. A Captain Haddock beard.