Having just seen the thought provoking exhibition “Behind the mask, another mask” at the National Portrait Gallery it’s made me reflect about how one’s job defines us and our identity.

Since the age of 23 I had worked in the art industry and I can remember the fear I had when, 9 years ago, I left my last gallery, Burlington Gallery, to work in the cloth/fashion trade.    I felt I had lost who I was, I was no longer the Gallery Girl that I had been for 14 years, and I had no idea who this new persona would be.     You allow people to see you through the mask of your job: their perceptions of working in an art gallery was always considered rather glamorous and had a certain panache and kudos.    It was  like they didn’t need to know anything more about you allowing you to hide your true self.

 

With age comes wisdom and, in truth, it transpires you are always you, whatever your mask, and I’m always going to be that Gallery Girl but now with a passion for clothes too.

With that in mind, when my partner moved into the flat, he kindly pointed out that I had a large quantity of clothes, a lot of which he had never see me wear, to this end, I now have a number of suitcases in the loft and a wardrobe full of his clothes!    So, when I live near, or on, my mountain I will make sure I wear every item of clothing I own and make a photographic journal.   I may not wear them in public should they be on the small side and may have to update some of them, but, they will be worn!

I have already warned Simon that he will be hearing the whirr of my sewing machine as I create fashion statements that I wasn’t brave enough to wear in Mayfair!      At last, the time for eccentricity.

One of the first blogs I followed was WIT, Wearing It Today, which was a diary of a fashion stylist showing photographs of her daily outfits….. my take on this will be Wearing WHAT today?