My husband and I had a date day today and it was lovely. No classes for half term and both babes in childcare meant a whole day to ourselves. I could feel guilty that I wasn’t at work yet wasn’t looking after the offspring, but I won’t-my marriage is important too!

For said date, we decided to go to brunch. At a trendy (and slightly pretentious and overrated if I’m honest) place in town. Dress code was smart casual. Weather forecast was rain (which happened to be totally inaccurate). Both outfits I had in mind still damp on the drier…

So I wore this:

Normally I would think this was a cute outfit channeling ‘ballerina chic’ or something. Instead today, I felt all awkward and the desire to have something new crept in. And you know why? Because the fear of not being appropriately dressed is still with me and I was intimidated by our destination. I’m certain being overtired didn’t help and to be honest I’m a little embarrassed that I’ve got to my mid-thirties and still allow these silly notions to bother me. But that’s the truth.  To be fair, I could go on about my my school uniform trauma which started it all off but now isn’t really the time.

Anyway, I got over myself pretty quickly when I forgot to care about about what others thought – no one who mattered anyway. And even if my outfit didn’t work in the eyes of others, my husband thought I looked chic (he has literally just chosen that as his adjective for my look and added ‘but anyway, what do I know?’ onto the sentence which I will ignore!).  And for today, that was just right.

So the point of my little narrative? I just wanted to encourage you not to be intimidated either. If you love it, wear it. And if you don’t but it’s all you have, wear it with confidence. You don’t need new stuff to make you feel good! I have lost count of the times I have used the phrase ‘strong and wrong’ when teaching dance to novices. It’s true you can get away with a whole lot if you do it with boldness. So go for it!