Ooh la la!

“WAG #13:Dress for Success” Thanks to Peter Spalton for the topic idea! For this week, find yourself a stranger (Yes, we’re all turning into a bunch of WAG stalkers!) Notice what the person is wearing, and then imagine the process they went through getting dressed. Peter suggests: Add lots of detail so we understand what sort of person they are and where they’re going after they’re ready.


My opportunities for people-watching in my day-to-day life are limited, because I know most of the folk in my villages, and have a I privileged relationship with them as their Vicar. I have to confess, therefore, that I probably use more imagination that I am supposed to for these exercises, thinking myself into people-watching opportunities that I get when I am away from home. One very good place is on the quay waiting to board a cross-channel ferry, and this rather cruel portrait is a composite picture of numerous ladies of a certain age that I have seen in that context.


Ooh la la!
Glenys looked into her wardrobe, thinking carefully about what she should wear. She wanted to look attractive and summery, but she wanted to be comfortable too. And she had to bear in mind that the weather might change before she had the chance to. Well, at least she knew where to start; she had bought those lovely, stretchy flowered trousers especially for this trip. She had been really lucky to get them, they had been the last pair of size 20 in the shop. What should she wear with them, though? That green polo-necked jumper picked out colour in the leaves, but the weather forecast had said that it would turn sunny in the afternoon, and she didn't want to be too hot.

She rummaged in her drawer and found the perfect thing, the new fuchsia coloured vest that she had bought at the end of last summer, just before it turned cold. It was the exact shade of the flowers in the trousers; it would be lovely and cool if the weather turned warm later - and it was the same pink as her sun-hat. She needed a hat, being a fair-skinned natural red-head (well it was natural originally, although she admitted to giving nature a helping hand now that she was past 50). The trouble was, at the moment there was no sun, and even the possibility of rain. Glenys looked at her collection of fleeces. Yes, the bright yellow one matched the spots at the centre of the big pink daisies on her trousers; she did think that it was so important to be colour-coordinated, she could never believe the combinations that some women put together! The fleece wasn't waterproof, but she had her folding nylon mac, and she shouldn't need to spend much time out of doors if it rained anyway.

Now, shoes. It was most important to have comfortable feet. The most comfortable pair were the turquoise canvas deck shoes, but they didn't match the outfit, and were no use even for getting across a car-park in the rain. No, the obvious choice were the pink and white leather; she had been delighted when she had seen them in the shoe catalogue, real sensible lace-ups, but in such pretty summer shades. As Glenys was putting them on, her husband called up the stairs "Are you ready? The van's packed, and if we don't leave soon we'll be cutting it fine for the ferry."

"Just coming" she called, picking up her sunhat and large white handbag.

John patted her flowered bottom affectionately as she climbed aboard the camper-van. "I am looking forward to this holiday," he said "I so love the way that you show all those French women what a well-dressed lass should look like."