Why I dress for my personality (not my figure)
In her 20s, fashion editor Anna Murphy followed the rules. Now in her 50s, her greater desire is to look as interesting as she feels
Ihave always loved fashion.
What’s changed, over the course of my 51 years as a fashion junkie, is the nature of what
I wear. Some of that’s to do with – forgive me while I clear my throat – socioeconomic changes. I grew up in the
1970s and 1980s, the decades immediately before the invention of fast fashion, when clothes were expensive and trends were a luxury my parents couldn’t afford.
Part of what’s changed in my life, and my wardrobe, is funding-related, but not only in a personal sense. The high street has become more nimble at creating fashion with a capital F at an affordable price point. Too nimble, from an environmental perspective. It has also – with the advent of online shopping – embraced colour and pattern like never before. Why? Because colour and pattern look more enticing on a screen than the supposedly more sensible alternative.
As a result, I’m more fashion-forward, not to mention more pattern-powered and more colourful, than ever in my life. If you had told me when I was 21 that I would be wearing, say, a zebra-print coat with a pansy-patterned skirt and snakeskin boots… Well, I honestly don’t know what I would have said. Nothing similar was to be found in the shops 20 years ago, new or vintage, or at least not at a price I could afford. Even if it had, I don’t think I would have had the brass neck to wear it.
I thought I knew the power of fashion in my 20s and 30s, but growing older has given me a new perspective. To dress unexpectedly – not to mention joyfully – is to debunk outmoded notions around age more generally, and to have a lot of fun in the process. These days, I am more interested in whether my clothes flatter my internal sense of who
I am than my form. I have a word in my mind when I’m pulling together an outfit, which is ‘interesting’. That is how I always want to look. Getting older has made me feel more, not less – expanded, not shrunk – and I want that to be reflected in what I wear.
One of the things I enjoy about fashion today is that anything goes. You don’t have to wear a particular cut or colour. For me, the most stylish people have always ploughed their own furrow; chosen what works for them, rather than been dictated to by others. Of course, there are ways to keep things modern – I’m a big fan of bright lipstick as an instant game-changer, and I like to keep things fresh by offsetting smartness with a more laid-back approach. A pair of stompy boots here, a lightweight hoodie layered there – it can only take one slightly unexpected piece to transform a look. Or you can go head-to-toe unconventional. For me, fashion is a female superpower, our very own metaphorical Spandex suit. I look forward to putting mine on every day.