Scribbles on the runway

 There seems to be a trend in life, almost a rule that everyone has to abide to, that just because you have ‘grown-up’ or are labelled as an adult, you are suddenly not allowed to enjoy the things you once loved.  Obviously I can’t speak for adults as I am only sixteen myself but as a teenager I have come across this narrow minded view. People seem to lose their childhood, they cut it short. One of my favourite quotes is one I once found in the Twilight saga obsession days, I stumbled across the quote in the opening pages of ‘Breaking Dawn’.  The quote is this:

“Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age

The child is grown, and puts away childish things.

Childhood is a kingdom where nobody dies.”

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

Aside from the beautiful poetic language in which Millay wrote this masterpiece of a quote, there are several reasons why I love it so much. It emphasises and rebels against the normal pathway of life. By this I mean that it contradicts nearly everyone’s lifestyle. The common belief is that after a certain age you are obligated to ‘grow-up’ as you exit the phase of being a ‘child’.  Like Millay states, ‘the child is grown, and puts away childish things.’Undeniably we all grow up - the most obvious change is the development physically, but also our likes and dislikes change as well as an element of our personalities. But why should all this mean that we lose the wonders of childhood?

  Like Millay’s writing, fashion goes against the standard rules of life. It breaks boundaries that aren’t supposed to be broken.  On my adventure to find an outfit for COMPANY magazine’s Style Blogger Awards held later this month (which by the way I am super excited about and would like to thank every single reader for making that a possibility for me to be amongst other amazing bloggers! I’ll be blogging about the event, tweeting and instagraming no doubt!), I stumbled across a skirt that transported me back to the kingdom that is ‘childhood’.

  For anyone who knows me, I’m not afraid to stand out when it comes to clothes. My style is often a reflection of how I am feeling. Sure, I have my lazy days where I throw on an easy outfit but those days are rarities. I also think an outfit says a lot about someone's personality. If someone dresses crazy and hectic they are usually courageous, outrageous and fun people. However, sometimes taming my inner outrageous fashion sense seems to fit in better with society. Don’t get me wrong I still dress odd to most people - when I'm out their reactions range from a quick glance to a full on stare but what can a person do eh?

  As a result my wardrobe consists of some edgy pieces and when I stumbled across this New Look skirt I was transported to nursery days and found my daring, childish consciousness screaming for it in desperation. The scribbles transported me to the days of childhood ‘art’. By that I mean the ‘art’ that was made up by a series of paint splodges, crayon scribbles and pencil clouds that hung proudly from a magnet on the family fridge. The kind of art that everyone pretended was a work of a masterpiece just because a 3 year old knew how to hold a paintbrush the right way up.

 I loved those days. Believe me if I could have passed my GCSE art by a few scribbles and dots scattered here and there I would have been a happy bunny. They were the days where you weren’t judged on the quality of your art but praised for just producing something within an A4 radius. This skirt reminded me of those days. Obviously the drawings had more depth than just a stroke of paint produced by a 3 year old but they had a childish edge to them as they were scribbled and dotted around the skirt. They looked like the kind of drawings you would find in storybooks that were read to you as a child. I loved the colourful, pointless messages that perched around the drawings such as 'awesome tree' stating useless information like a child. I loved the soul lifting neon shapes and colours, they were like the colours of happiness. If the colours were a person they would be Mr Happy for they made me feel like a female equivalent of him when I looked at it… Although I realise that he is in fact a fictional character and not a person, I hope you get my gist…

  The skirt for me was like happiness and childhood wrapped in the exterior of a skirt.  My love of fashion and childish things were reunited. It reminded me of the quote I found in my much loved but battered copy of Breaking Dawn and it made me remember that ‘Childhood is a kingdom where nobody dies’.. And for the price of £9.99 my childhood was rebought, a small price to pay to enter the exclusive kingdom that is Childhood. 

 I'M WEARING:

OUTFIT

NECKLACE: TOPSHOP

SHIRT: NEW LOOK

SKIRT: NEW LOOK

SHOES: TOPSHOP 

BEAUTY

NAIL VARNISH: BARRY M, ALL-STAR AND REVLON

LIPSTICK: RIMMEL LONDON, KATE MOSS (NO.16)