Frocktober 2015: I didn’t always rock a frock

My relationship with dresses has been an interesting one in my 23 years on earth so far….

Dresses weren’t my first choice of clothing when I was growing up. Playing dress ups as a young girl resulted in a love of dressing up (wearing lip gloss to the dinner table regularly, according to Mum!). Dresses and skirts felt like ‘Uniform’, a sentiment from my school days – I preferred pants, thanks to the late 1990s and early 2000s trackpants, low cut and wide leg jeans trends.

I have come to love dresses, in all their diverse, trendy complexity. But it be a challenge to not be able to fall back on my well-worn default of jeans with converse or heels.

When it comes to dresses, I will almost always don a pair of stockings. I am rarely bare-legged in a dress outside of summer. Many-a fashion columnist will lament this reinvigorated habit, thanks to the Duchess of Cambridge(!)

Growing up as a teenager in the 2000s inevitably brought me face to face with the ‘bodycon’ dress trend. Not ideal for the self-conscious, but I eventually went against my mother’s wishes and bought a clingy black bodycon dress from Valleygirl in 2009 (when I was 18).

Dresses were just for going out clubbing for me, for a good few years. It wasn’t until I interned at an Image Consultancy in July (-November) 2013 that I was a) Forced to think about corporate dressing and b) started to embrace colour.

The Managing Director ‘did my colours’ (Whether I was a cool/warm palette, what suited my personality and skin tone) for me, and gave me a pocket-sized colour wheel. This was invaluable, I bought two dresses that week – one red, one fuschia.

And so began a colourful friendship with frocks.
I got a bit braver with my choices.
Then came the op-shopping! Boy oh boy!

It was around this time that I discovered my family connection to Ovarian Cancer, through my Grandmother’s story. I asked a Doctor I used to work for about Ovarian Cancer, and he shook his head and proceeded to tell me that he had lost several patients to it, because it was detected too late. This solidified a very emotional connection for me, with Ovarian Cancer.

My decision to do my first Frocktober was an impulsive one. I had over $300 within my first day, which was really emotional. I’ve raised over $3,400 in two years; I am super proud.

Not bad for a girl who took awhile to come around to dresses(!) I have a wardrobe full of stylish madness, I love it.

Deciding to take part in Frocktober has been one of my best decisions ever; because it is another way I can celebrate my Grandmother’s survival and effect positive change in the future, when there will be an early detection test for Ovarian Cancer.

I took 42 dresses out of my own wardrobe to help it happen. A pretty happy trade!

Maybe there will be a day when we have the treatment and cure we need for Ovarian Cancer? I hope yes..

.. but just you stop me trying to rock a frock now.

Here’s to day 1, and all the women who have survived, those who have been lost and those who WILL survive,

Happy Pants Off-tober /Frocktober!

A x

Get all the latest updates for Absolutely Frilling Frocktober on the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1692079624355061/