Yes, am I?

Begs the question, eh?

 

There used to be a time when I would get dressed up every day.  Perhaps less of dressed to the nines, and more of dressed for work at the PR agency where I led a 7-member team.  So yes, I’d wake up by 6am.  Feed Eve (told you it was a while ago), make sure she had everything ready and the maid was duly briefed on what to cook for the day.  Shower, curl my hair, apply some make-up (which, at the time, was blusher, blue eyeliner as well as blue mascara, and pink lipstick, cringe).  Try on one outfit.  Take it off.  Try on yet another.  Still not right, pull on something else.

Arrrgh!

Nothing worked, and by now, there are piles of clothes strewn all over the floor. A frantic glance at my cellphone tells me it’s past 8:30, I’m still traipsing around in my undies, and if I don’t get dressed right that moment, I’m going to be royally late for work.  To provide perspective, back then, I was working in Singapore and commuting was hell.  Public transport hell, that is.  Some people used the MRT, some (fortunate few) drove (cars cost about the same as a house there) yet some others, like me, cabbed it.  What that means is a 20-minute drive would evolve into approximately an hour’s journey, from calling for a taxi to waiting for said taxi, to ploughing through vehicle after vehicle on the highways, to finally reaching my destination.  All the while desperately praying I made it there before my (arse of a) boss, but that’s a tale for another time.

These days, I am up anywhere between 6am to 7.30am, depending on what the day looks like in terms of meetings/conference calls and deadlines.  Typically, I’ll come downstairs for a coffee (it’s true, you know, what they say when they proclaim, “but first coffee”), check my emails and respond to the urgent ones.  Then I take a shower, brush my teeth, and apply my skincare (perhaps it ought to be, “but first the face”?).  I continue working, still in my sweatpants (the ones I slept in), until around 1pm when (if I remember), I stop for lunch and another shower (I’m one of those people who shower around three times a day, to be honest).  Afterwards, I might put on a cleaner pair of sweatpants (and they’ll be the ones I’ll go to sleep in that night), and essentially that’s my sartorial schedule when I’m working from home.

Blessedly, the style blogger whose daily uniform is comprised of comfy tee with comfier sweatpants, when they’re not posting outfit shots, is nothing new. It’s a line I’ve heard pour forth from many a fashion blogger, admitting that when it’s a no-need-to-meet-anyone-sort-of-day, it’s more than likely that sweats would be de rigueur as they work long hours, in a semi-disheveled state.

Yet, you wouldn’t know it, would you, since everything looks immaculate, all the time, on their blogs and social media.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s quite fabulous, playing dress up and adopting all sorts of different characters as well as personas each time I put on an outfit (that isn’t sweatpants, of course). It really is great, and offers me a means of escapism from my messy, unmade bed and even messier bedroom floor (yes, still strewn with clothes but this time, it’s because I recently moved so shush).  But it does make me wonder how much of my life can I really share as a style blogger since I’m in sweatpants whenever the camera’s no longer snapping away.  It’s rather like the “turning into a pumpkin” effect, I feel.

That after a certain time, I revert back to normal boring.  And am no longer interesting.  Could it be I’m overthinking things?  That people do want real life me?  Or perhaps we’re all so jaded and disenchanted with things happening around us that we crave escapisms, even if for only a little bit?

Or maybe, just maybe, everyone, everywhere is simply tired of agonising over what to wear all the time.  After all, the pendulum swings both ways.  We’ve all seen how, after years of the fashion industry trying to top itself in ridiculousness, or as Suzy Menkes noted, the Circus of Fashion where she complained that people wore crazy clothes to fashion shows in hopes of getting internet famous. Because you know, once you’re internet famous, your life is complete.

Or perhaps, fancy sweatpants are now a staple for fashionistas everywhere?  I don’t know, I don’t know.  Even writing that sentence makes me feel blasphemous.  Akin to committing a sartorial act of high treason.  I am very serious.

I feel as strongly about wearing sweatpants out as I do seeing people walking around with the word J U I C Y on their bums.  Like why (wait, is this something you guys would like to talk debate in a different post, as in why on earth would anyone want to wear something with the word JUICY spread across their asses??).

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make about sweatpants is that when fashion trends take a turn for the understated, what then happens to the conversation?  Does the conversation quiet down too? Do people move on to talk about other things because talking about how this pair of sweatpants is cool, but those pair of sweatpants are terrible, really does sound ridiculous?  Or, on the flipside of things, do we all suddenly remember how much more to life there is than looking good, even while wearing sweatpants?

Discuss.

And onward to something decidedly much more fun than my prose.  Today, I am immensely pleased to be a part of the Ageless Style Link-Up, an activity bringing together the loveliest of ladies every first Tuesday of the month.  There’s Daenel, Debbie, Jennie, Jodie, Janet, Kellyann, Lisa, Paula and Shelly.  Truth be told, I’ve legit been dying to be invited as a guest host ever since this party began and when Debbie (finally) emailed inviting me for December, I squeaked and I squealed and I jumped up and down!!!  So here I am, all clad in the month’s theme of Festive Outerwear, and absolutely over the moon to be a part of Ageless Style.

 

Don’t forget to join in the link-up, ok?  The party only begins when you’re here.  By the by, you may be asking why I’ve gone on about sweatpants, and yet chosen to not wear sweatpants in these photos.  It’s to keep you guessing, obviously GRIN plus I’m not quite cool enough to pull off sweatpants as festive wear so I chose to give that one a wide berth.

Come back Monday, friends, but until then, I’m out.

 

Love, Sheela

p/s I link up here.