Last week I bought one of the absolute best things I’ve bought all year. I genuinely don’t know what I was doing with my life before I had it. And the most amazing thing is that this purchase happened as a result of my own complete ineptitude: through self-created chaos, I found Wardrobe Nirvana.
But let us rewind a little and set the scene, so that I can give you at least eight hundred words of loosely-related backstory…
I have a fashion-related confession: I am tremendously bad at packing for work trips. All’s fine if I’m throwing things into a case for a holiday or for a short break that is purely for my own enjoyment: no problem. But throw in a fancy social media dinner, an important meeting with a client or any sort of appointment where I feel my appearance needs to be impressive, and I completely go to pieces. I forget the basic principles of dressing. I pack the most ridiculous and inappropriate items of clothing, none of which go together, all of which are random, little-worn pieces that have been at the back of the wardrobe in my spare room for years because I have no idea what to do with them.
And my issues aren’t just limited to packing for trips; even leaving the house seems to pose a problem when it comes to putting on clothes. I’m quite good at stylish dressing if I don’t think I’m being scrutinised, that my outfit is inconsequential, but if I’m under any sort of pressure to look good then I totally crumble.
Which is why I can manage to look like a trendy Parisian taste-maker when I have a dental appointment, or need to pop to Sainsbury’s for milk, but send me down a red carpet and it will appear as though I got dressed in the late nineties. In the dark.
I outdid myself this week with my bad packing. I know there are bigger things to worry about in life, but honestly, my bizarre suitcase contents have caused me no end of inconveniences, including (in no particular order) having to take a detour into central London to find socks, almost expiring from heat exhaustion because the only top I packed was a cashmere roll-neck (too early! So premature!) and managing to only pack trousers with particularly invasive gusset seams.
So it’s been an all-time low for me, this week, in terms of suitcase-packing success. I packed the wrong footwear, I forgot to bring a nice dress (I’m currently on book tour) and – we’re finally getting around to the point of this post – in a moment of sheer haste and late-for-the-train panic I managed to leave the house without packing a single vest top, t-shirt or soft, comfy bra. NO CASUAL OPTIONS!
Idiot.
I was going from home straight to a drinks event at my publisher’s, and then on to a dinner and, because I usually travel in all of my comfortable clothes (no tight gussets, a crop top rather than a proper bra, a soft-as-clouds t-shirt, a versatile cashmere cardigan that can be fastened or not therefore covering all weather scenarios) I completely forgot to pack these most basic of requirements.
