The Consequences of Trends & Fashion Injuries

“I realise we most often say, fashion is pain. But how far is pain and how far is reckless abandon?”

Fashion & consequences of a #fashiondisaster

As I write this I’m stuck on a train. Not an unfamiliar place for me however, today it’s a special type of hell reserved only for the particularly clumsy among us. My love of fashion, like many also means that I take a great deal of risk in my every day-to-day life.

What am I talking about? The flatform brogue of course.

A flat, mannish shoe which is often the dream of all of us carrying a good chunk of the nhs’s aluminium rood allowance but for which is also perhaps our graceless demise.

I myself own two pairs. A well-worn pair of stone suede flatforms with patent inserts and a coral stripe through the heal; they give me bounce from their foam sole whilst keeping my foot nicely flat. Meanwhile my second pair, is an even more masculine copper pair, tied with laces they make me feel either part ahead of the curve or part Victorian man with curious looking bronze leather.

Usually we get along.

But then today* we had one of those rare accidents often only reserved for these shoes alone. I was minding my own business you see, making my normal game of chicken with train times at Clapham (a greatly unreliable train station for surprise cancellations and everyday delays which often prompts me to flick between platforms looking to grab the first train possible) when it hit. My knee that is.

Let me say at 25 there really is little more that is sexy than a woman who really knows how to throw down on a staircase. Just ask the same ankle which took the brunt four years ago. At least this was up the stairs, however!

Now, as I sit on the train from hell with my leggings and half of Clapham station welding itself into my flesh I wonder about the little talked about subject of fashion injuries.

Sometimes they are funny, one poncho I own for example makes it very complicated walking around the house without finding myself attached to every door I pass. Whilst others bruise egos and even break bones but where is the line in the sand, where does fashion overstep the lines of cool and practical and turn dangerous?

A quick trip up Clapham hardly seems a worry, but having had a step and a pair of badly fitting work shoes cause two breaks and a dislocation resulting in surgery & a year of my life that I can’t get back then I have to start feeling differently about my need to follow the trends blindly.

My old town, Maidstone was often a horror to witness on a Friday/Saturday … hell Tuesday night out. Here skyscraper heels you can’t walk in and bodycon dresses really are the lay of the land. Come dressed in anything less (or perhaps more) and you might as well of stayed at home.

Perhaps this is something you can only truly understand at the sounds of your own bones breaking but it would make me shudder to watch.

These girls could barely walk in these heels and yet as the brave souls they are they would track out (minus a coat, even in snow) to the town for dancing, drinking far to much all with no thought to their ankles whilst I would watch cringing and holding tightly onto Joshes shoulder down any staircase, even in flats.

I realise we most often say, fashion is pain. But how far is pain and how far is idiocy?

I’m pretty cautious about my fashion at the best of times but how far do you feel you can go? Personally I wear my flatforms a little less. Sometimes I need them but other times I don’t feel safe enough, or comfortable enough to wear them out. Having lost movement in one ankle, seemingly forever I don’t want to risk them again if I can. I make shoe choices based on comfort, on support and protection of every bone regardless of fashion and trends. It makes acquaintances laugh and think I’m strange but I just can’t justify the hurt of limbs for the everyday call of fashion.

How do you view fashion vs comfort and support? Are you the bravest of the bunch not afraid of a break or bruises or, like me, do you put more consideration into safety with your clothes? Leave your comments or own funny clothing story below or send me a tweet @JessicaALow #fashiondisaster I’d love to hear about your own disasters (it’ll help make me feel a little less embarrassed at least.)

*this was written a month or two ago and sadly forgotten on my ipad