Aloha, Joan Crawford could be speaking for many of us today when she commented, 'bags and shoes are my weakness.' In her day a girl wouldn’t leave the house until she was perfectly ‘put together’ with a matching bag and heels, hat, gloves and costume jewellery. Accessorising was a female art form passed down from mother to daughter with advice gleaned from fan magazines and beauty books. Today accessories have never been more fashion forward but we seem to have lost the glamour-puss art of wearing them with élan. Over-designed and over-sized designer handbags swamp many girls who think, a little inaccurately, that a huge Prada tote will make them look slimmer and that spike heeled mules go perfectly with a pastel pink Juicy Couture jogging suit. Glamour-pusses of the past knew that a sassy pair of heels and a cute crocodile clutch could lift an ordinary outfit into fashion’s stratosphere and create a frisson of anticipation in any red blooded male. Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Doris Day knew that the right accessory marked a girl out from the rest of the crowd as someone with an individual sense of style, sex appeal and exquisite taste. So in Doris’ words, ‘Why not gild the lily? Why not use accessories, jewellery, perfume - anything to help make you more attractive to the opposite sex?’ For me, the preoccupation is glasses. A good pair of specs can make you look the height of fabulousness – get it wrong and you’re a social and sexual outcast. I was at a social function the other night (pub quiz in Crouch End) and a potential swain remarked how much I looked like a TV celeb. Preening myself I asked, ‘Pray Who?’ ‘Alan Carr’, he replied. I think it’s time to change my face furniture.
I have tried several pairs out but the greatest transformation came courtesy of Oliver Peoples – before discovering their latest range I was in a slough of despond – after… well, look at the results! Transformed into a vision of fashion by the pale pink Pierson. Check ‘em out!
www.oliverpeoples.com And you know I can never leave you without a few words of advice gleaned from my book, How To Be Adored – this time the glamorous songbird and glasses wearing Petula Clark. Boys Do Make Passes at Girls who wear Glasses by Petula Clark' Dorothy Parker could not have been more wrong when she made that by now famous remark about gents not making passes at girls who wear glasses. Despite the spectacles on my nose I've never had any trouble getting dates. My spectacles certainly never worried any of my boyfriends! I wear glasses almost everywhere, except when I'm acting on the set or taking a shower! And I've never been a wallflower at parties or dances. I've had as many wolf-calls as most girls, specs or no specs! Why hide them when you've got to wear them? That's impractical vanity, and only leads to a near-sighted girl smacking her nose against a door because she can't see where she's going. Glasses can improve your appearance. They can appear to shorten your nose. Or they can make your face look narrow or wide according to the shape of the frame! A girl can make them a very fetching part of her make-up. Even if they make you look the “intellectual type” - is that bad? Besides you can always prove to a man that you're not!'
Want to know more? Read How To Be Adored by Caroline Cox
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