Plenty for me to choose from for Christmas!

And finally my COVID cardigan which I knitted during lockdown . A big thank you to my friend Trish who put it all together for me.

Week 49

For some reason I can’t find where I post a new post so I’m creating this on the end of week 48!

Not 2022 but 2020 I couldn’t give up buying any clothes for 3 years!!!

Only a few more weeks left of 2022. What a year it has been ! Now it is the time of Winter festivals which started with Diwali last week. This week is Thanksgiving in the USA and soon it will be Christmas. Traditionally a time when party clothes are purchased. Already Diwali has passed by without the opportunity for dressing up and already we know that no Christmas parties or works do’s will be taking place. Looks as if Christmas will go ahead in some form or other. But I also suspect that we are all so used to wearing clothes for comfort that Christmas attire will remain more casual than usual.

Emails are already pouring onto my phone with discounts for Black Friday on clothing. I’ve resisted looking at the bargains as I suspect there will be plenty post Christmas. How many more retailers will go under in January and how will the high street look post Christmas. Pretty devastated I suspect. Hard times ahead .

Exquisite or W A P Watson Ltd produced costume jewellery in the UK from 1914 to 1979. One of the most popular series was the Birthday range. Hand painted flowers designs for each month of the year.
— Read on ezinearticles.com/

Obviously not a frock! But this is where it all began at an Antiques Fair!

When Woolworths was open these could be bought quite cheaply. They would be bought often as presents as they represented each month of the year. Each one was hand painted in the factory in Solihull , so I fell in love with them and obtained the set. Some I bought at Antiques fairs, one I spied on the market and some I bid for on eBay ! And as my friend had suggested I wore them often in the middle of tops as a brooch. They added interest to plain tops and have also been a talking point. I often think that much as I like skirts as well as dresses, often when we go out to restaurants , or pubs or supper with friends no one can see the skirt one is wearing as one is sitting, a pity really . So it’s fun to wear an eye catching brooch. I often wonder about the folk who sat and hand painted those brooches.

After last weeks serious blog I will strike a lighter note this week! Brooches! Despite no frocks I have continued my quest for brooches which adorn frocks! I’ve never worn a lot of necklaces though I have a few I love. A few years ago a friend who owned a jewellery shop suggested to me that brooches could be worn like a necklace in the middle of a jumper so my love of brooches began . My collection is generally bought off EBay or linked to a place I’ve been, rendering them of sentimental interest, like my silver llama from Peru.

Last week I visited my cousins,who declared that they were enjoying my blog but mentioned that it was quite political, which set me thinking. I had aimed to write about environmental issues alongside issues about the use of sweat shops . Are Richard Attenborough and Greta Thunberg being political when they talk on environmental issues and of course the answer is yes. Unlike Greta Thunberg, Attenborough doesn’t mention political change but we all know environmental issues are totally bound to politics hence the climate summits attended by political big wigs.. Lily Cole the model and environmentalist has just written her book on political and environmental issues “ Who dares wins.”.A podcast accompanies the book and is well worth dipping into .

“Can you afford to be green if you’re not rich” recorded on the 10 th September poses important issues for us all to think about. It reminds us that the heads of large fashion companies are millionaires employing poor workers in sweat shops. It suggests that large companies purport to be making effort to use more environmentally friendly materials but are reluctant to stop producing the huge bulk of clothing which continues to contribute to the clothes mountains which take years to degrade. It also suggests that there is an element of subconscious colonialism in the west’s attitude, in that if workers in 3 rd world countries receive a reasonable salary and are treated with some dignity it’s okay for huge profits to be made as they are earning enough rather than raising their standard of living by paying even more. They might then start questioning, whereas if they earn just enough if it’s okay.

Will Covid change attitudes, a little I suspect but not enough. It will certainly stop us buying especially now the shops are shutting . To me the joy of shopping is not online but the occasion itself. But I don’t think the younger generation get that. Anyway a seismic shift is the only way our clothing buying habits in the west will change . The longer Covid goes on the more hope there is of change. And if one is to get political the longer governments don’t cope with Covid well the more likely the public will be asking for change , as Greta Thunberg declares needs to happen. Watch this space.