If you plan on getting older... .

I had another post altogether to publish today, but as I was having my morning coffee and reading some of my daily blog reads, I happened upon this video on Garance Dore and decided to re-publish it here instead. Just on the off chance you live in a bubble and do not read Garance's blog every day like the other thousands of girls world-wide already have
This is installment number one of an interview between Garance and 73 year old Costanza Pascolato, contributing editor to Vogue Brazil and it is worth a watch. It inspired quite a few thoughts and I think this post might be a bit of a ramble but I hope its worth the read still.
I am not quite at the point in my life that Costanza is but I am in my forties and just came out of a 10 year period of my life where all I did was work, work, work, work. Of course you know that I run Shrimpton Couture, but I also co-own and oversee two other businesses. We have 2 dogs, 5 kids, a father-in-law who lives with us, two houses (don't ask — its complicated), travel all over the world and keep 15-20 people on the payroll during this rocky economic times so we are responsible in a way for all of those families in addition to our own. One of our kids is going through a long term illness so in between of all of the above list, I often have to drop everything at a moment's notice and attend to our child's situation.
Guess what little grasshoppers who are reading this? This is called life. The older you get and the more successful you get the broader your shoulders seem to have to get, and the more others lean on them. You either carry it or collapse.
I really related to Costanza's comments that one day she woke up and realized that her beauty is work. Most people don't get that concept. Like me, most of us tend to take our own bodies for granted. Beauty, however you choose to define that concept and word, eventually gets to a point where it needs to be earned like all the other things you earn. I have access to more couture and fabulous clothing then most will ever get to even come close to in their lives and for a good chunk of last year I was so lost that I did not even revel in that anymore. I felt like my body had betrayed me — I was gaining a few pounds and the clothes I usually wore no longer fit. One day I woke up with a bit of an epiphany and realized that it was ME that had betrayed my body. I was not exercising, I was eating all those lovely little bits of devilry at all those lovely events I am lucky enough to be invited to, drinking tubs of champagne and generally tipping the scales, literally and figuratively, against myself.
My personal epiphany is that as you get older, beauty is something you decide to give yourself. You will never have back that the beauty-culture-inspiring-flush-of-youth, no matter how hard you try, and boy-oh-boy do some women try hard huh? At some point you need to decide that beauty is something that comes from within — I know that sounds cliche and if you are under 35 you probably did a little eye roll — but it is a cliche for a reason. It is true. We all need to settle into our bodies and like them. It is the only one you get.
When the next installment of this is published I will publish it here as well so we can see where it goes. I don't think you have to necessarily dump your guy to stay on track beauty wise — no plans to do so here — but you do need to figure out what works in your life and what doesn't.
I feel blessed that my odd little hobby, that started as a side project, spurned by my love of vintage, has turned into something that I feel impacts women around the world. My clients become friends and friends become clients. I think I love vintage even more because it sits on the edge of the fashion world. It is somewhat outside of the pressures of constant perfection. The very nature and base concept of vintage revolves around the concept of embracing the imperfect and the past. I often go to fashion events and look at all the women in the room trying to be the newest, latest, greatest and do my own little private eye roll. I see woman that are dressed SO perfectly and are coiffed, plasticized and made up to the nines and they are not beautiful, because they are just doing it to out-do everyone around them. They could be beautiful but the whole process starts from a place that can't be beautiful so the end result never is. Then some quirky woman walks in the room and she doesn't give a shit what the other women think and she is the beautiful one. That is the girl you want to be.
That is the girl I want to be
Have a beautiful, vintage filled dayxxx cherie