Ode to Winkleman

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I don’t want this to be too focused on expensive designer clothing. Equally I don’t want this to become a daily worship at the temple of celebrity. I know celebrity culture is rampant and I’m just as bad as the next person for flicking through endless magazines to see who is wearing what (though thankfully my interest does seem to wane from around the B-list level!). However, now and again the occasional celebrity will slip through...as will the odd designer item (such as Bambi!).

And one of those celebrities is the divine, delightful Claudia Winkleman!

It’s slightly embarrassing to admit the extent of my crush on the wonderful Winkleman. I always think I should be old enough to know better. But I love her...and felt slightly vindicated in this (after much teasing from friends!) by Lucy Mangan’s ode to Winkleman in the Guardian earlier this year. I loved her description: “Winkleman is gorgeous (a gawky tangle of perma-tanned limbs, fringe, kohl-rimmed eyes – she looks like a teenage Bambi who has just nibbled his first hallucinogenic mushroom in the forest), but also gloriously mad.”

Come September, I watch ‘Strictly it Takes Two’ religiously (thank god for i-player!) just because of her. Because I am supposed to be trying to focus on fashiony stuff, I will leave aside how utterly brilliant she is and how much character she has got...and focus on her look. The dark hair and fringe that she’s always peering out from underneath with her heavily kohled eyes. I love the pale pink lipstick, which gives her a sixties-ish look. She’s usually in a high-street dress which I’m always tempted to buy (and often do!) and some high-end expensive shoes, which look utterly impossible to walk-in and so I’m not tempted to buy as I’ve increasingly realised that the number of occasions a year on which I can wear feet/ankle/back-cripplingly high shoes I can count on one hand!

I also love the fact that if you follow her on Twitter she’ll tell you exactly what she is wearing every night on the show...head to toe, lip to lash! Brilliant.

I love her because she is my age bracket and doesn’t look remotely frumpy. She is fashionable but in a grown up way. She doesn’t look like she’s just taken a tumble in a Topshop jumble sale. She’s also not been forced into this ‘dark bootcut jean, crisp white shirt, statement necklace’ look that seems to be expected of women when we reach a certain age! It’s cool dressing for adults...with personality.

And she doesn’t look like she dresses to be attractive to a male audience; she dresses for herself, so is never overtly sexy. But she is naughty and there is mischievousness to the way she looks and behaves which is sexy.

So this is my ode to Claudia...a fashion inspiration for the +30 woman!

p.s. and I know she’s not wearing high street in all the photos, such as the Miu Miu dress in the photo above, but I don’t care because it rocks and in terms of ‘lust items of the week’, I could fill every week with Miu Miu’s latest collection (but that would be too much designer for Edna!)