Fashion: Practical Mediocrity or Inpractical Perfection?

For many people, (myself included), the best part of a night out is undoubtedly the getting ready. That ritual of painting on your makeup, slipping into an LBD, and towering tall in your 5 inch heels, before looiking into the mirror feeling confident and proud. Not only are you ready on time (for once, I swear time evaporates in my hands), but just an hour ago you were stood in sweatpants on the phone in a complete and utter dilemma over what to wear, whereas now you both look and feel fantastic.

For the majority of women, this is fashions main purpose; to enable them to step out of their house feeling good about themselves, which then undoubtedly imapacts upon the way you act and the success of your day. It doesn't matter whether you are wearing an expensive Preen dress that you saved up for a month to buy, or a quick purchase from H&M that costs £24.99 - the effect it has on you is exactly the same.

My most recent H&M dress purchase.
It just needs to be summer now so I can wear it.

It is then a shame that when you arrive home a few hours later you are rarely in the smae confident mind-set, instead cursing the stupidly high shoes, and impossibly tight dress, swearing that neither will ever see the light of day from your wardrobe again.



When going on a night out, I never fail to wear high heels, - however after a couple of hours on the dance floor, far from walking taller I am usually hobbling home like a woman of 85. No longer am I concerned with the aesthetic appearence of my footwear of choice, but with the incessant burning pain enrobing the ball of my foot. This conundrum between practicality (flat shoes), and appearence (high heels), is one I am confident most people reading this can identify with.  However I am also quietly confident that no matter how many times I moan to myself as my feet 'pulse' with pain, no matter how many times I have to head home early, no matter how many times I swear I won't, I will continue to wear them. I quite simply would feel un-dressed and have much less fun without them.



My beautiful tan Carvela sandals.
When I first tried them I thought they were pretty,
after 5 hours of wear they were just prett dam painful.



Even as I write these words a sense of embarrassment wafts across me, as I realise that I  place appearence so far above practicality. "Well it's only shoes that I make the sacrifice for", I think to myself in an attempt at justification, but as the words hit the screen a view memories have come flooding back just to prove how wrong I could possibly be.

Case in point the evening I decided to wear a beautiful black, strapless French Connection dress, that was soooo un-believably tight that I had to forego eating for the whole day out of fear that I would not get the zip past my hips.

A decision that can surely only ever be surpassed by me wearing high-waist skinny jeans complete with tucked in white shirt,to meet my friends for dinner. Very 1950s, Marilyn Monroe chic I thought, until I discovered at dinner, that the jeans were so cripplingly tight they gave me stomach cramps, leading to me and my 1950s chic outfit havng to head for home at 10:15.

So I didn't look quite like this when I returned home.
Actually lets be honest, I didn't look quite like this when I left.

Do you want to know the most embarrasing point of all? I have worn all items mentioned above on multiple occasions - even though I have sworn blind that I will never wear each item again, every time I return home.

So you may wander why I would be so willing to put myself through such self-inflicted fashion trauma on an almost daily basis. But the answer is a supremely simple one; the happiness, pleasure and confidence that I get from wearing the garments far outweigh the issues described above. And ok, ok I may grumble that my feet hurt, or that I have seriously restricted movement in my chosen dress, (think the robot dance circa 1992) but I know full well that I wouldn't have it any other way.

Call me vain, stupid, a glutton for punishment - I probably am in some capacity all three, but there are two factors I am confident about. Fashions innate ability to make women feel happy and empowered, and my guarantee to continue my quest for an (albeit) inpractical perfection.

So tell me, what are the most embarrassing decisions you have made in your quest for the perfect outfit?