I love my look...

I am one of those people who are always in their jeans and casual tops at work. For the life of me, I cannot squeeze my feet into a pair of heeled shoes. And make-up, well that’s something I discovered a few months back. Though I have waist length hair I have not yet blow dried my hair and used a hair-straightener for the first time in 2006 the day I got married.

I used to dress up well as a teenager and even during my college days. I believe that God gives you a quota for everything and once you have used up your quota you are left with nothing. When I first started working I used to be dressed to the Ts – mini skirts, matching jackets – the works. But even then I was never into too much of make-up.

With the piling pounds (due to being a hypothyroid) my dressing is often dictated by comfort over style. That’s how I like it. I like my pair of glasses over the contact lens – any day. The intelligent, nerdy look is how I visualise myself.

Anyway you should now have a fair idea of how I look. Last week I went to our annual departmental conference to Dublin. For every business trip the day before I leave DH and I spend a few hours deciding on which outfits I should take for my trip. There is a dress-rehearsal each and every time and DH tries his level best to make me wear dresses and skirts again. I do have all my old outfits. The frugal me just refuses to give away my beautiful old clothes. After all the dress rehearsals I end up packing my usuals – black, black and more black trousers, shirts and the most boring of jackets. I find fault with most parts of my body – thin ankles (my pet peeve), thick thighs, rhino hips and big tummy.

Funnily enough this time I decided to go along with DH’s suggestions. Ever since I started exercising I have a new-found love for my body. Not that it has changed even by an inch, but somehow I have developed an interest to make myself to look more beautiful.

So off I packed a plum mini-skirt suit and a black pin stripped dress with black jacket (yes, the black has to crop up somewhere) for day wear. For night time I had lavender coloured top with a chunky Butler and Wilson necklace. For the second evening I had this beautiful white top with black flowers on it. To hide my thin ankles I took just boots – sexy black ones with a hint of heel.

Now if I could sum up my look in one word it would be, no not would, it was WOW... and this too from others. Some of the comments were:

“She’s like Ugly Betty” (now I am not sure whether that was a compliment)

“Chinty looks like a lady now.”

And for the first time someone called me something what I have always wanted to hear – ELEGANT.
Forget the fact that all the pictures still showed my fat self, this conference has just made my whole year!!