This month's brief: KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - revision month. Tips for people under the yoke of academic study.
So what do I know about revision? Nothing, that's what - if I knew about revision, I'd have a job and a house. This left me at what seemed a minor creative disadvantage, this month.
Then again, I do know about being at home. And then again, this is a style-fashion blog. So what do you need from me? You need clothes-related calm-keeping. And that, I can give you!
It was my mother's birthday on St Patrick's day, this year (like every year), and (like every year) I had no idea what to give her! She's tricky. So you start at the start - what does the giftee do with their days? In the case of my mum, she teaches all day, and then she comes home and researches and plans for teaching in her office. But she gets cold - she ends up spending all day with her dressing gown or outdoor coat on over her clothes. Which really doesn't breed a comfortable attitude, for hard work or a quiet mind.
Etsy time! I got online and put in a search for a housecoat. Here she is work-ready, now - she's a part of the daytime world, and a part of the indoor world too:
Houseclothes have pretty much vanished from the average wardrobe, I'd posit. Watch something set in the fifties and you'll see housecoats and housedresses. Watch urban-based sixties and seventies films or shows and you'll probably see kaftans and velvety houseclothes. But by the time you're up to the eighties and onwards, "loungewear" (things you wouldn't wear outside) has pretty much become jersey and spandex, or sportswear. Things that actually, are perfectly socially acceptable to wear outside. Especially now.
That is what you, as a person actively revising or studying, want to avoid. Avoid avoid avoid!
If you have trouble, when you need to get down to it and work, you want to wear things that you wouldn't feel OK sleeping, or getting ready to sleep, in. Dressing gowns? Out! Pyjamas, oversized t-shirts? Out! You don't want to feel chillaxed. You don't want to feel sleepy or lazy. You need to feel ready, and capable, and Dressed For The Day. You need to feel prepared.
But you also don't want to be ready to go out. If you're dressed in a way that would not invite comment if you popped out to the shops, or went to the park, or went to roam around with friends for a bit - then you're encouraging yourself to do those things. And if you are doing those things, or thinking of those things, then you are not revising!
Revision dressing, then, might be taken in three basic directions: "classic loungewear"; "wacky experimentalism"; or "take luxury where you can find it".
All of these pictures bar the couple that are of me (the last pair in the first section) are of garments available from Corina Corina in Warwick; owner Ella was kind enough to let me invade her shop for a while last gloomy Saturday!
Classic Loungewear
Here we're talking clothes that were actually designed to be worn in-house only, OR clothes that are loose and comfortable against the body and currently off-trend. Some of these, like the Kaftans and smocks, are quite possibly still relevant to your everyday wardrobe - things you'd be perfectly alright with wearing outside. If this is the case.. pick a different category!
Personally when I wear designated houseclothes, I feel serene. I am where I am meant to be ("in the house"), and I feel comfortable, because these items were designed, specifically, to be no kind of hindrance to a person going about daily chores or catching up on correspondence.
Housedress on left: 60s vintage, via etsy, a birthday present from my gent; Kaftan on right: 70s vintage from an antique mall near Buxton
Wacky Experimentation
Please note here - I'm talking from the P.O.V. of the 'normal'. Just adjust the volume, to suit your individual lifestance. If this doesn't look unusual to you, please don't think I'm calling your tastes messed up or strung out! It doesn't look that weird to me, either.
Things that aren't technically "houseclothes", but which would make people, in an average British town, raise an eyebrow at you. I know, aren't people rude? But in exam season, it's probably best to keep sartorial experimentation to private hours.. because having people yell at you is neither calming nor focus-enabling. No, really. Don't bother being brave, just now. You need to concentrate.
These are good choices because they're fun, and fun is an antidote to soul-crushing anxieties such as "Oh man, what if I fail everything and die". They're creative expression at a time when it seems like your sole purpose is to be a fact-retaining machine, a repository for other people's discoveries. Did I mention I hated and was poor at revision?
Don't forget that WE houseclothes can also be physically practical - keeping your hair under control when your head is getting closer and closer to the textbook, when you haven't showered for days because you NEED THOSE EXTRA MINUTES.. yeah. Try out head wraps and bandannas! If you wear them already, step it up and opt for something bigger, brighter, or involving more knotting.
Take Luxury Where You Can Find It
If you're in school, or college or University, or.. well, if you are a member of society and answer to society's expectations, you probably have an outfits worth of occasional wear. Evening wear. Posh togs. And when do you wear it?
How wonderful is the back of this 70s dress? SO WONDERFUL.
When I was in sixth form I skipped the prom, but I did go to my friends' joint birthday party. This required a dress. Not a cotton dress or a daydress or a sundress; a fancy dress, with beading and velvet ribbon. In my life, I have worn this dress out once: to that party. That is a gosh darn waste of fabric! If you have a dress or evening suit, or if you see a dress or evening suit and you love it, there is no reason why you should experience the joy of wearing it on nights dictated by the ebb and flow of your high-class social life.
If you have an item, you can wear that item. You can wear it to read notes on the scandals of Popes through the sixteenth century. You can wear it to organise your folder of Mondrian postcards. You can wear it with sequined shoes to make yourself a bracing cup of tea before diving back into what exactly the billboard meant in the Great Gatsby. If the dress is wonderful, it will make you feel wonderful - and feeling wonderful is conducive to a lack of stress and a belief in one's abilities. These are things that are important, when one's life is at a junction.
Good luck, readers! I bet you'll do great.
All those notes and exam preps need brightening up, so what would be better than these coloured polkadot pens from Paperchase? Well no exams or deadlines for one
I am so scatter brained that I literally rely on post it notes to survive- much to my Dad's annoyance at finding them all over the house- buy some mutlicoloured or different shaped ones so those trivial things don't seem so boring
The greatest use of these miracles of modern stationary is undoubtedly 
I seem to constantly have a notebook with me, you never know when you'll need to jot something down and during May you'll need a couple. So if you're a floral lover like our Florrie this Cath Kidston set of two would suit you perfectly
Our lovely editor Amy is the worlds best reviser and stresser and in turn planner, and how does she plan her revison? With big pens and paper; but Amy's madness does work it serves as a reminder but not in a bad way- go get the felt tips now!
And finally when it's June.... TREAT YOURSELF
Anyone spotted why Our Davey there isn't looking so good? Yep he's missing a leg! The madness of airbrushing!
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