Woman in a Red Dress

As a natural redhead, I spent most of my 1970s childhood being dressed in green, and occasionally pink, purple or brown.   I don’t remember ever having a red dress, because one of my mother’s mantras was that ‘redheads shouldn’t wear red’, along with ‘blue and green should never be seen’ and other similar fashion faux pas.   Consequently I grew to hate the colour green with a passion.  In fact, I must have been in my 30s before I ever seriously considered the colour for my wardrobe. 

My mother always maintained that I was ‘strawberry blonde’ but mostly I was tormented at school for being freckly and ginger.  Any insult you can think of, I was called.  Mercilessly.  I started dying my hair when I was 13 or 14 and didn’t stop until I was about 22 or 23, when I had a sudden change of heart and began to embrace my gingerness.  Of course, I dye it now, but that is mostly to cover the greys… sometimes it ends up red, other times more of a dark or mousy brown… it just depends on which hairdresser is doing it and how free they are with the foils.

Anyway, I digress.  I love red but only usually wear it at Christmas, always wary of the warning drummed into me against it ‘with my colouring’.  Also, being big, I always imagine I would look like a giant tomato waddling down the street.  I do have red shoes and handbags but generally wear them with denim, black or white to spruce up an outfit.  However, I was very daring during the Easter break and wore a red t-shirt on a day trip out.  I bumped into a friend who commented later that I had looked ‘stunning’.  Now stunning is not a word often used to describe me nowadays and I was really heartened by the complement. 

I had bought a couple of dresses in a smaller size in the DP sale a few months ago and was delighted to discover this week that they now both fit.  So I took the plunge yesterday and wore a completely red outfit to work.  Admittedly, I was underpinned by SPANX, but I wore a red and white poppy print dress with a scarlet cardigan, shoes and bag.  I even swapped my usual ‘barely there’ nude colour lipstick for an outrageous and slightly tarty pillar-box red.  I didn’t care what anyone thought or said, because I felt fantastic.  

I am so glad I did.  I’ve had a really rubbish few months and have been increasingly feeling down.  But from the time I walked downstairs for breakfast, I had nothing but complements!  From my children, my husband, other mums in the school yard, my students, work colleagues, the girl that served me in Specsavers and again yesterday evening when the same friend popped over for coffee and exclaimed, ‘Wow, red is certainly your colour!’ when I opened the front door.

It is amazing how much better I feel today and how less stressed I am as a result of these genuinely kind words.  It only takes a second to say something nice to someone but it might just make an enormous difference to the way they feel about themselves.  I’m definitely going to make a point of telling people that they look nice from now on - everyone needs a boost from time to time and I might just make someone’s day!