THIS IS MY ENTRY FOR ELLE 2012 ESSAY COMPETITION; enjoy 🙂
As a woman living in Essex it’s hard to fight stereotypes, especially when out at the weekend. When it comes to style and how we present ourselves certain television shows have made us Essex girls out to be something most of us really aren’t. I have two confessions to make; 1. I have never actually owned a pair of white stilettoes and 2. I’m never going to be a dress size 6. I am actually a little bit proud of both these things and I have to admit I don’t really plan on changing them. As a result of my lack of desire to resist a slice of pizza and my love for summer I have found that I’m a little bit in love with floral dresses.
Living in England it’s just not a viable decision to wait until it’s sunny to wear a dress because if you blink you just might miss your opportunity. When I was younger I used to refuse to wear dresses, I would see people like Zooey Deschanel and images of Audrey Hepburn in their modest length skirts and girly poses and want to be just like them, I would long to find the confidence to show off my not so amazing legs and kill my feet in some ridiculously high heels. Unfortunately for me my confidence never really came, until last October.
Due to the unlikely combination of me having a fair bit of money at the same time as England experiences a heat-wave I decided to treat myself to some new clothes. An impulse buy led me to becoming the proud owner of a purple floral skater dress. At just above knee length with a perfect scooped neck line I fought my inhibitions and braved the heat-wave that was upon us. For years I had been so self-conscious and aware of all my body hang-ups I just couldn’t bring myself to wear anything other than jeans, now I wear dresses of all design and colour and I really do thank that one impulse buy.
My floral dress, which is still hanging up in my wardrobe ready to be warn at any given moment, is now joined by many others, from full length skirts to patterned tunic dresses and everything in between. It’s come to the point where I’ve now got a reputation within my friends as the one who will be wearing a dress. I’m no longer asked on the weekend what I’ll be wearing because the answer will inevitably be, “that new dress I bought last week”, I have people asking if they can borrow clothes off me and asking me for fashion advice. Although I still look at people like Zooey Deschanel and wish I could be as confident as them I enjoy, and revel in the fact, that people look at me the same way.
I think the reason I enjoy my floral dress more than any other piece of clothing I own is because when I was younger my mum would always call me the ‘girly’ sister. My older sister, who was actually interested in the football, not just for the players and preferred to go skateboarding rather than shopping, was always considered the ‘tom boy’ and so in comparison, with my pink feather boa and sparkling ballet shoes, I was always the feminine one. As a 10year old trying to out shine my sister, a feat which was made impossible if we were nothing alike, I refused to admit that I was never going to be ‘boyish’ but now I enjoy this fact. I like being known by friends as the one who dresses ‘prettily’ and has confidence and I like to be seen by strangers in my dress and letting them think that nothing will faze me, because although things do they don’t need to know that. I like to think that it was that floral dress which allowed me to realise this
Alexandra Whittle 
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