Wearing ✶ Tailored Dress {Similar here} ✶ Boohoo Circle Crossbody Bag ✶ Old Bobble Beret {Similar here} ✶ Boohoo Tassel Ankle Boots ✶ Eclectic Eccentricity Pendant ✶
Even though Bangalore doesn’t really have an autumn, it’s hard not to be inspired by all the cosy sweater weather looks of the season. Bangalore has three seasons – hot and dry, cold and wet, and a pleasant in-between state which passes for both autumn and winter. It never gets quite cold enough for sweaters, so I’m interpreting fall with dark florals and lots of black this year. Yes, I’m wearing black! Which is so unlike me, because it’s a colour I’ve avoided for years, almost a decade really.
A long time ago, I used to hide in swathes of baggy black. Black was ‘slimming’, it was my armour. I spent my entire second semester as an undergrad in one single black kurta with my hair scraped back in a bun. As I started growing more comfortable with my body in my third year of Uni, I gradually began to phase black out of my wardrobe. Black was a reminder of my body hating days, a part of my teens and twenties that I wanted to leave far behind. I had a long way to go before I could feel neutral about black again, see it as just another colour in my wardrobe alongside my beloved jewel tones.
I got this dress tailored last month with some Kalamkari fabric I picked up in Commercial Street. I’d stayed away from tailors for years as well, after some particularly horrendous fat shaming thanks to my last seamstress. I was finally convinced by my friend Ushshi to give tailoring another go, and I’m so glad I did! My current tailor is a kind, old gentleman with a very headmasterly aspect who puts me totally at ease. Ever since I’ve fallen in love with the bohemian aesthetic, I’ve found myself drawn towards traditional Indian fabrics and handicrafts too. It’s a roundabout route to take into my own culture, but I think that’s what being thirty-something is all about – reconnecting with the roots and parts of my self I’d been sundered from for so long. It’s a more reflective time, a contemplative one, a time to gather old threads and take stock of what I’ll pass on to the next generation. In a way, my 30′s are autumnal.
The circle bag and ankle boots are recent buys, from Boohoo who actually ship to India for a flat rate of £6.99! I’ve been looking for alternatives to ASOS after their lackluster performance with delivery this year, and so far, I’ve come up with Boohoo, New Look and River Island, which isn’t at all bad. The bobble beret is the same one I’d worn for my very first date with my fiance (6 years ago!) and the little puppo pendant is from Eclectic Eccentricity. It’s something I’d managed to break shortly after getting it in 2014 – and guess when I finally got around to repairing it? The day before yesterday, which speaks rather eloquently about my love of procrastination!
