The same dress

When I lived in London I did not charity shop so much – more disposable income and less opportunity to do so. I still didn’t spend lots on clothes and mainly shopped in sales, H&M and it was at this time that I discovered the delights of TK Maxx which I still love. In a way it is a larger and more expensive charity shop.

But, looking back, I missed charity shopping. Thing is, I’ve always liked to look a bit different. I put this down to having to spend the first year of my adult life wearing school uniform. My birthday is at the beginning of the school year and I went to a strict 6th form by way of explanation. I remember my flatmate at this time telling me about his new girlfriend saying that she gets all her clothes from charity shops. I realised that this couldn’t be said of me anymore and it felt a bit weird, like I wasn’t being true to myself, odd, I know.

Then the unthinkable happened. One night after work I went into a pub in my new green H&M shirt dress only to be confronted with a girl wearing exactly the same dress! Shock, horror! She was on the phone and announced it to her caller and consequently the whole pub. It was awful, I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. Ok, that’s not true, I think I just said “snap” as I walked past her and was surprised that it wasn’t more embarrassing. But I didn’t like it. I think the thing that bothers me about being dressed exactly the same as someone else is that one of you is always going to look better in the outfit. I’d like to think that in this case it was me, but it probably wasn’t. So the point I’m trying to make is, if you shop in charity shops you’re more likely to avoid the awkward situation of bumping into someone else wearing the same dress.

However, a good friend of mine recently told me a story that started – “I went to a dinner party and there was a girl there wearing the same dress as me…” it ended with “ ….and I had to hide my knickers in the bishop’s umbrella stand.” I was going to use this as a moral tale to back up my point. But honestly, where would we be without tales like this, and if that means wearing the same dress as someone else, I’m all for it!

Sophie x