When did I stop wearing dresses? If you live in NSW or VIC and read my column in Sunday Life mag, you may have noticed a new photo appeared alongside it this weekend. It’s the first time I’ve done new shots for my column in over a year.
Last July, Sunday Life’s art director Aleks Beare oversaw a half day shoot where I was photographed in five different outfits to roll out over the year. Except they only used four of the shots because the fifth was too casual. More about that in a moment.
Anyway, it’s a weird thing being photographed when you’re not a model or an actress who pretends to be someone else for her day job.
And when the photo is going alongside a first-person opinion column, the link between words and how you’re portrayed is even more relevant.
Poor Sunday Life. They keep trying to balance the image they want to portray for their magazine (polished) with the image I’m rusted onto (casual).
There are worse problems than arguing with a stylist about what clothes you’re going to wear and how high your heels should be. I get that. So this year I surrendered to the process and enjoyed it far more.
Last year, when we did the shoot, I was in a different, more fragile headspace. I had just finished breastfeeding and I was about to launch my book. I felt a million miles away from glamour or heels or even make-up. I was paranoid about looking ‘fake’ in someone else’s clothes and anxious that I didn’t want to make anyone else feel bad about themselves on a Sunday morning by looking at a photo of me after 2 hours of hair and make-up, professional lighting and styling. In other words, NOT how I look on a Sunday morning or any other day of the week.
[to those who say: then why don’t you just be photographed au natural in your jeans and bare feet, well, it’s not my magazine. I am employed by Sunday Life as a contributor so the decisions about the kinds of shots they want are theirs. And I’m happy about that, lord knows I have to make enough decisions around here. I adore taking direction from people I trust and admire. And there’s nothing WRONG with a bit of fluff and a pretty frock and brushing your hair. And yes, I always ask not to be air-brushed.]
WHERE WAS I?
Dresses. So this year, my baby is 2 and my breasts have resumed wind sock status and I decided to relinquish a bit of control to the stylist and art director and do what I was told. And the result was….dresses! I used to wear a lot of dresses when I worked in an office. Ginger and Smart dresses mostly. Some Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dresses. And lots of chainstore.
Then when I was pregnant and breastfeeding, I wore lots of floaty dresses from Tree Of Life. And then….pants. Jeans and trackies and harem pants and cargos. No skirts. No dresses. Nada.
So it was with some trepidation that I climbed into the frocks (with my Spanx and Nancy Ganz underneath, helpfully provided by the stylist, supplemented with my own impressive collection) and clambered into the heels for the five shots. Or was it four? I can’t remember because for each outfit, I had to pose in 4 different positions and after a while, my eyes began to cross.
It only occurred to me to make this video halfway through the shoot so that’s why there are no ‘before’ shots. Needless to say, it is not my natural state.
The green dress I’m wearing is by Scanlan and Theodore (so is the black one) and I would NEVER have thought of picking it off a rack. Or wearing it with a belt. The shoes were mine (Witchery) but the shoes I’m wearing in future shots are most definitely not mine – they’re YSL and Balenciaga and amazing.
Are you a dress person? Has your fashion style changed as you’ve got older?
Top Comments
i rarely wear dresses unless it's hot as i'm always cold and don't find tights/stockings to warm me up as much as pants and boots do.
i wish i could wear them more often but i'd rather be warm :)
Dear Mia,
I am a very contentedly married senior teacher (I have a life of my very own) father of 4, not in the first blush of youth. I read your Age column each Sunday. Your piece about 'Names' and parents' responsibilities was great. I have given copies to people, and mentioned 'La-a' to many people. My daughter works with someone with a dau called 'La-ah', so there it is.
Now, I seem to remember that when I first began to read your interesting column your picture had you in a pants-suit or some such. Not very memorable. Then, quite recently came the blue-green dress in the adjacent picture. We found that Mia had LEGS. That was fine. We all have them, and therefore no surprise there. Two weeks ago, there was the 'Little Whiye dress' and the, well, very noticeable heels. Suddenly, with no expectation at all, your picture was the most sensuous thing in the Sunday Age. I must admit I was a bit disconbobulated. The blue/green dress presented us with a nerw view of Mia. I found myself wondering 'What will Mia look like this Sunday?' the white dress was breathtaking.
Next weekend itr was gone. Mia appeared in what looked like a plastic tracksuit, and this weekend, with the topic of appearance, there was the blue-green again.
I can imagine the politics at the Age over the white dress. Appearance suddenly seemed to be much closer to the driving seat than had ever been the case before. To then make appearance the subject of this week's column seems to support such an idea.
Sarah Wilson seems to have been wearing the same outfit for ever. My point is? Your column is worth reading because of its ideas. You write well and your topics are stimulating. I do not want to appear in anyway a stick in the mud, or to seem judgmental. I do mnot want to appear too anxious to have more of Mia and less of the dress, either. I just think it is very quaint that you (plural) have gone down this path, and that next you are discussing this very issue. You discuss it as if the white dress had never happened, of course.
Am I making my point with any skill at all? Probably not.
I remember those men who claimed in the 60s to read Playboy for the articles. Now of course your pictures are on a different planet from Playboy, as they should be. Nevertheless I found it to be quaint that I was looking forward to the pictures, as well as the articles, instead of the pictures being something I hardly noticed... (a pants-suit or some such). The topics of appearance, allure, responsibility of both genders are ones I have discussed in Media Analysis with my Yr 12s in the past, and no doubt will in the future. I look forward to seeing more of you... of your articles, of course.
I hope you will not find any of the above too presumptuous on my part.
Regards,
Colin Youl