July 5, 2009 | about me
It’s conference season in the romance writing world, which means one thing: everyone has become obsessed with clothes. (See, for example, Fiona Harper and her drop-dead-gorgeous gown.)
Of course, most writers work in things in which they wouldn’t be seen dead in public. At the moment, I am wearing a Brian Wilson t-shirt nicked from my husband The Rock God, and black fake satin Chinese-print pyjama bottoms—oh and bedhead. This makes it even more important to dress up when in the company of other writers and industry professionals.
Nobody’s fooled. But we all pretend to be.
I’m so excited at the prospect of dressing up that I’ve started planning my outfits for every day of the RWA National Conference in Washington, DC. Parrot-printed halter dress for the literacy signing, with black cropped leggings and silver flats…gold linen shift with brown belt, and brown and orange Faith heels for the Harlequin 60th Anniversary Party…purple silk chiffon Karen Millen dress embroidered with shells and sequins, with gold sparkly heels for the RITA and Golden Heart ceremony…
I’ve worn most of these clothes already—in fact I bought the Karen Millen dress when I was four months pregnant—that’s it there on the left, posing with a lovely black dress worn by new SuperRomance author Christyne Butler.
Hopefully nobody will remember it except for me. Except I’ve posted it on the World Wide Web now. Doh!
I’ve done a bit of clothes shopping, but it’s difficult with deadline and Fecklet accompanying me every step of the way. Mostly, it’s been bargain shopping. I bought a top from Tesco for £8. Flats and leggings from New Look. Dresses from H&M. So my look this year is going to be previously-worn dress-up clothes, and cheap new ones. I haven’t even bought myself an expensive pair of shoes, which normally is a must.
Still, it’s a better style than old t-shirt and p.j. bottoms. And I still need a couple of things, such as a gold or ivory evening bag, so I’ll be doing a bit of shopping this afternoon.
I hear rumours that the RNA blog will feature photographs of authors’ shoes. I can’t wait.
Edit:On my shopping trip, I bought a chipped resin bracelet from John Lewis in the clearance sale for £5. Extravagance, thy name is Julie…
Jan Jones says:
You are going to look lovely, Julie.
But you do realise K8 is going to walk all over the RNA shoe-fest without you there, don’t you?
Julie says:
Yes, I trust K8 to wear the shoe queen crown (or should that be stiletto?). Though I’m sure she will have some glorious competition!
carolc says:
The outfits sound and look fab Julie.
The problem with me and sale season is that I feel compelled to buy things but can never decide what. I then wind up missing out on the quick selling bargains and decide to wait for the next sale. All in all a good strategy for money saving, but very bad for time wasting.
Kimberly Lang says:
Love that dress!
Kate Johnson says:
Aw, it’s not a real crown unless there’s competition. I’m sure plenty of other RNAers will give me a run (or at least a high-heeled mince) for my money!
I feel the same way about dressing up. It’s nice to be considered glam but…well, today I’m wearing sweatshorts and a t-shirt with dog pawprints all over it (and no, not cute printed ones, but the kind you get when walking a boisterous Lab puppy who likes to swim. Arms and legs are similarly covered in prints).
And I couldn’t possibly comment on planning outfits for Conference. Well, I could, and in fact I think I will. I do it too. Otherwise I’d do my usual packing trick, which is to throw everything I own that’s a) clean and b) fits, into the biggest suitcase I can find, then give myself backache lugging it all around. Efficient, no?
Now, I just have to go choose some shoes…
OMG says:
I so wish I could wear that dress for the fireworks. As it was…
we walked out of our condo into the road, looked up and…
there they were! Fireworks that shamed years to past, more than 30 min and plenty of time in between big shows to light sparklers….
it was a nice night