This blog has been a little drowsy lately. I haven’t been idle (I even made big progress on my summer essentials), but my (usually pretty vivid) coquetry definitely was: readers, I think I suffer from a Donkeyskin complex.
The Donkeyskin complex (Donkeyskin seems like a fairly French fairytale, but as you can check here, it’s not a skin disease) is when you always wear the same three pairs of jeans, whereas there are some pretty dresses in your closet. Granted, the weather has been dreadful on France’s northern hemisphere these last weeks, and going bare legs was a little difficult. But even in the brightest, hottest days of May and June, I was already the prey of this terrible disease: the Donkeyskin complex doesn’t have anything to do with the weather, but rather with the idea that you have to be a slattern, in order to one day become a pretty princess.
A slattern is not necessarily dirty (do you think I’d post such a thing on a blog?), but rather… sloppy. The “slattern state” could also be called anti-style: in my case, it consists of wearing the same poorly fitting denim trousers, identical Petit Bateau tees and plain sweaters, while sketching, making, and pinning pretty clothes. The Donkeyskin complex is the dichotomy between our day-to-day self, this ordinary being we tend to neglect, and the ideal style you’d like to find and wear.
This is actually a perverse idea: as if you had to wait, in order to begin to try to be and feel like yourself, a bit like some (being themselves victims of the Prince Charming complex?) wait for the ‘right person’ so that they can begin to think of happiness. Whereas there are much more chances to find this ‘right person’ while you’re already trying to be happy by yourself… Right? I confusingly remember some words that I think were from Vivienne Westwood: according to her (or at least it seems like something she would say), best-dressed people tend to live more interesting lives…
I really wonder what I’m waiting for.
