Isms

A couple of weeks ago I went to a house warming party in Cheltenham. The invite was strictly fancy dress, anything beginning with the letters ‘A’ or ‘C’ after the hosts. I’m not a huge fan of fancy dress, but I don’t mind letter parties, as you can be a lot more creative, and you don’t need to go running and screaming to the nearest party shop to pay for an overpriced pirate/robot/70s costume – you can work with what’s already in your wardrobe.

Now it must be said that while I don’t mind dressing up, Mr Ship-Shape is very against it, so much so that it might possibly have developed into a fancy dress phobia. He made the mistake of declaring to our friends that he would be attending the party as himself, and as a result everyone thought I would follow suit. Which is why, at nine o’clock on a Saturday evening, we were confronted with ten people who had decided to come to the party dressed as us.

Complete with creepy face masks with holes for eyes, after laughing myself off the sofa, I was struck by how easily definable my style is. I genuinely don’t think I dress in one particular way or have one particular style.

Some days I wake up with the urge to dress in bold colours, other days I pick a more masculine outfit. Sometimes I like vintage dresses, other times I opt for leather and glitter. So it came as quite a surprise that there are so many isms, so many little traits that define my style, that my friends picked up on. Their list of Sarah-isms included the following:

• Man watch
• Camera
• Paisley scarves
• Floral/patterned/stripy dresses
• Rolled up sleeves
• Converse
• Lipstick
• French plaits/braids
• Pearl earrings

Some of these traits can be found in abundance on this blog, some less so. Do you have any isms that others use to define your style?