Her time and vision were set apart. They no longer existed on the same plane. Creativity couldn't find a name and the inspiration that once deadlocked her into that seamless drive of ambition and persistence, evasive now.
The world as she knew it was a bygone era. The moment where hope derived from 'you have plenty of time' replaced by a constant barrage of posts and stories that made staying relevant less about your next mode or muse of vision and more 'Sundays are no longer closed'.
Subtlety was not an art-form anymore. And she was far too young yet to fall into a dreamy abyss of 'paid my dues'.
Shutting her laptop closed, she considered for a moment attending the event tonight. Surely she couldn't complain if, at the same time, she shut herself inside listening to sweet music and dreaming?
Picking herself up off her chair as though a slab of stone, she traipsed rather like a petulant child not wanting to go to school; to her dressing room.
What to wear? What to wear on a night that she simultaneously couldn't be bothered and would adhere to a 'black tie' dress code? Comfort, it had to be.
She reached for an old faithful (and loose-fitting) black gown with sharp, defined shoulders. Ok, it was long-sleeved and far too modest for an era that beyond all else being lost, she still had a waist and fabulously defined ribcage. Alas, she really needed to, at the very least, feel cosy. She'd been photographed in this dress before but who even cared anymore? It was simply another charity gala where desperation would reek from the eyes of the multi-aged, multi-faceted yet invisible women clad in the latest fashions; hair and make-up professionally done as they spent most of the evening shooting stories of themselves for their instagram feeds for the benefit of their followers who likely were comprised of the other women at the very same event doing exactly the same thing. Nowadays, even being Royal didn't matter if you didn't have an agent and instagram account to keep you relevant.
She patched some make-up on and let her hair fall loose before clipping half of it up to reveal the dresses' shoulders (and her neckline). Well, there was no need to let it all fall apart.
Taking a step back from the mirror, she took in the result. Ok, she looked boring. Put together but dull.
She opened her jewellery box in a last ditch attempt to well, make an attempt. And perhaps because she was in one of those laissez faire moods (and also because she needed to feel lots better about herself) it suddenly dawned on her to open her safe.
The sparkle of yellow and white diamonds suddenly tickled somewhere close to that place you're meant to smile from. She picked out her Boodles' Wonderland Peacock earrings and put them on.
She stood back from the mirror once again.
Well yeah ok fine; that was transformationally stunning. Effortless, girlish and magnificent all at the same time. 'Wow' and yet elegantly subtle. Her.
Grabbing the first clutch bag that came to hand, she called a driver and meandered out the door. It didn't really matter, when she was adorned like this. And for what it was worth, she wouldn't be invisible for as long as she stayed true to herself.
We could remain in a world where we pretend to be like everybody else; create the same things as everybody else, behave like everybody else; because it's easier. We could too, in these circles, inflate ourselves like peacocks do (though us, surely, less impressive) to keep ourselves in the place we assume we should be (after all, everyone else is there).
Or...
We could be like the fine jewellery house Boodles. Understated, elegant, generational and without a hint of pretentiousness. Because you don't need to pretend when your diamonds speak for themselves and more vitally, you're wearing them not to appease others but because when you saw them first, you really and truly fell in love. The Boodles girl isn't simple; she's elegantly subtle - until when you least expect it of course - and she fans her feathers on her ears, for all the world to see.
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