AK Soufflé: You’ve got the look
Image, how we obsess with it, whether like me you strive for individuality, or, like so many others, you like to fit in. I’m not one for fitting in, I’ve tried but I usually fail. Much as I like fashion I find I am restricted by two things, price and size. Yes, if you hadn’t noticed or been told I am something of a fatty!
Size certainly rules out so much fashion, the makers seem to not recognise that with age comes the money required to stay “on trend”, but also that spreading waist. It’s a tragic truth but one that I have learned how to live with. So for the most part these days my wardrobe is blessed by St Michael. He looks on me with kindness.
Restricted to basics, and I do steer very clear of the “trend” efforts of the high street saint, I like to accessorise. I am a lover of ties and bow ties, wear scarves with gay abandon and shoes the same. I’m no Imelda Marcos but…
These days my wardrobe is blessed by St Michael
My favourite way these days to strike a note of flamboyance is with my glasses, yes I believe in specs appeal. I started with sunglasses of course, years of buying vintage in junk shops and the graduating to Ray-Ban. Then all of sudden I needed glasses to read and now varifocals, or fairy vocals I like to call them.
My opticians of choice is Specky Wren, at the entrance to the Open Market in London Road. I like the people and I like their patience when it comes to choosing a new frame. I’m not easy to please, I like to try a lot on and create a shortlist before revisiting and making a final choice. I love that they have a good range from safe to wild, neither of which are from me. But in there I find something that is exquisitely different, not silly, not huge or garish, but oddly unique – which is always what I am striving for. My new specs do exactly what they need to, which is make it possible for me to read, but they also look great, a bit serious, a bit bling, a bit… well a bit me!
