Nine years ago, I wrote the last post for my 'fashion blog', Mrs Bossa Does the Do. I didn't know it'd be the last, I never flagged it as such, but it had a sombre vibe I should have guessed might herald the end.
I'd only started it 14 months before, because my then-partner bribed me to. Unsure of whether I had anything new to say, I wrote about anything I could think of, from grey socks to Gucci catwalks, from charity shop finds to feminism in fashion. And it was HARD. Well, it wasn't hard to throw together a 'I want these Prada shoes' post, but I found it difficult to focus and define it. Ultimately, body image issues took over, I got sick of taking photos of myself, the community dwindled, and I left it.
I'm now almost ten years older (39). My life has changed, my body has changed, and my tastes have changed. I could pull off vintage granny frocks then; now they just make me look older...and it's been a long time since I wore 3-4" heels on a regular basis. I've found it quite hard to 'grow up', to stop thinking of myself as a student and to start thinking of myself as a fully fledged adult - and this has clashed with my bigger dress size and different lifestyle. I lost my sense of personal style, essentially (I don't think that's uncommon either - any life change can bring about a crisis of sorts, and how you dress gets caught up in that). I haven't stopped thinking about it though. I've done multiple clearouts of my wardrobe, I've read every bloody style book I could find, I've gone to and from all-black clothing more times than I can count. Surely I've learnt something.
So here I am, at the beginning of a new (and significant) change in my life. I've moved in with my 17-years-older, widowed boyfriend, along with my three cats. I've come out of lockdown into a job that looks very different to how it did before Covid dug its heels in. I have more financial freedom, but more insecurity about my body. I can no longer be arsed putting on a shit-tonne of makeup; I just want to look healthy and...awake. I want to be healthy, and feel like 'myself'. I want to be realistic about what works for me, I want to feel good, and I want to ENJOY GETTING DRESSED AGAIN.
So Mrs Bossa is back. I'm back on the personal style journey, and I'm taking you with me. I'm not a professional stylist, or fashion editor, and I definitely can't claim to look my best every day - but I hope that as an average woman, with an average body and average bank balance, what I have learnt and am still learning will help you too.
