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I've always been drawn to the extravagant, just ask my mum and she'll tell you the struggle to get me out of a princess dress and plastic heels when I was younger. My childhood photos are full of silly hats, bright colours, and costumes, all picked out by me. And it continued, my favourite character in any show has always been the most extravagant with my love for Ab Fab and Sex and the City proving it.  I feel my eyes move towards the vibrant, and my heart towards the bold.

But you definitely couldn't see that in my outfits, or really my personality. While I've gone through my fair few of phases (don't scroll far back on this blog) I've always gone with convention, floating along in the waves of trends coming and going, scared off from items I loved by the fear of looking stupid. However, the fear seems to have swiftly left.



Maybe it's working in fashion and having access to sample sales that let me test the water with more out-there items without breaking the bank. Maybe it's the anonymity of London. Maybe it's the incredible women I'm surrounded by, who all dress like superstars and support me like I'm one too. Maybe it's my total and utter love for burlesque and sadness that I can't live in my costumes every day. Maybe it's watching AbFab for the 1000th time. We'll never know, but over the last month, I've been stomping out of my comfort zone and into the fun zone in my vintage leather boots.

I like clothes that make me laugh or gasp, completely ridiculous, man-repelling or 100% trashy. My Mum dispairs each time I pick up a red vinyl skirt, or some leopard print flares and laugh, 'these are amazing'. And at a trying time, I need things to make me laugh more than ever, so I'm going to buy all the ridiculous, ugly-beautiful clothes I can get my hands on. There's humour and joy and magic in inventing a character that would wear pieces like that, I like to try them on for the day/night. When I wore my snake print skirt with my boots and a pinafore, I was a 1960s Dagenham girl. When I wore my pink and red silk top, I was Alabama from True Romance. When I wear my cherry print flares, I'm a 70s babe going to a gig. The storyteller in me creates a full backstory, and my inner child gets to play pretend. And I, the real 20-year-old Lucy heading to work, gets a giggle each day when I pull things out of my wardrobe or walk out of a sample sale with new costumes in my hand to try on.

It's my favourite form of escapism. My shy soul draped in vibrancy and bravery. And even on my worst days, I can't help but smile to myself when I'm walking down Hampstead high street at 5 pm in pink and animal print with hearts drawn onto my cheeks, projecting a personality that couldn't be further from how I feel, but I'm infatuated with the image of her.