Elegance and Beauty

"While beauty, in its purest physical form, is nature's gift alone to bestow, elegance, grace and style are infinitely more democratic.  A little discipline and a discerning eye, along with a generous helping of good humour and effort, are all that's needed to cultivate these admirable qualities."  -Kathleen Tessaro

I picked up a small book at a local charity shop called “Elegance”, a novel about a woman who becomes frustrated with her own lack of this quality and seeks to pursue it.  It really is true that you are what you read – even after just a few chapters, I found myself appraising my wardrobe plans for the next day.  Apparently, comfort is out where elegance is concerned.  "When comfort becomes an end in itself, it is the Public Enemy Number One of elegance." I think that’s always been one of the challenges I have faced when it comes to dressing ‘elegantly’, or even nicely: women’s fashionable clothes, particularly shoes, are not created with comfort in mind.  It’s presumed that women will gladly endure a great deal of pain in order to best showcase their charms – and this is presumed because we see it carried out on a daily basis in cities all over the world.

However, there is something to be said for dressing nicely.  "There's something about a slow moving female in the middle of rush hour traffic. Everyone, everything changes. And I discover that moving slowly is one of the most powerful things you can do....I appear to be walking because it amuses me, not because I have to. And in the sea of darting pedestrians around me, I have become majestic." I read this and wasn’t sure I entirely believed it…so often these novels about women who don’t consider themselves beautiful just frustrate me, because they only need to lose a few pounds and go to the gym for a month or two and they’re practically a supermodel.  But I decided regardless to dress today with elegance primarily in mind, and practicality second, and scoured my closet accordingly.

To my own surprise, I discovered a long tartan skirt in green and grey and pink, with tall grey boots to match and a long green coat I had picked up in a charity shop in Glasgow’s West End.  I decided to spend a little extra effort on my hair, choose out a necklace (again surprised to find one that complemented my outfit colours perfectly), and at the last minute added a jaunty grey hat my friend Helen gave me for my birthday many years ago.  I was amazed at what you can bring together from random shopping trips, birthday and Christmas gifts, and a hair dryer and straighteners.  Feeling a little better about myself on the ‘elegance’ side, I sallied forth.

I couldn’t believe the difference.  Perhaps a large part of it is in the mind: if you know that you look well, you walk more confidently and aren’t afraid to meet people’s eyes.  But I couldn’t ignore the fact that people looked me in the eye and even smiled; taxis stopped to let me go past; and the guy trying to get me to contribute to the charity of the day began his spiel with “Well, you look really nice today!”  And the thing was, I knew I did. 

I still maintain that, partly for me and my own personality, and partly because of the world we (or I) live in, striving for elegance every single day is not just exhausting, it’s (horror word) not “practical”.  There are days when I just put on a pair of jeans and work from home.  Or when it’s absolutely chucking it down, and wearing a nice, dry-clean-only coat will be something to regret later. 

I’ve re-read this quote on elegance and beauty, and I disagree.  Beauty is not simply something that 'nature', or God, bestows on some and not others, and you have to just make the most of the hand you have been dealt.  I think that striving for elegance leads to beauty.  When I make an effort to choose my outfit more carefully, and add accessories that match and highlight, others take pleasure in the result.  My cheerful green coat brightens the world a little bit, and so does my smile when I’m feeling pleased.

Have a beautiful day.