028 Serious glamour
On Zadie Smith and Virginia Woolf's "frock consciousness," the folly of being taken seriously and my only goals for 2026.
An unserious, serious person about to have the high of her year at the Chanel show.
Somehow it’s the end of the year and I’m pleased to say that I have the same goal for summer as Zadie Smith did for the most recent Northern Hemisphere winter. Which is to read all five volumes of Virginia Woolf’s diaries.
Lately I’ve been thinking about Smith’s thoughts on how you can be both serious and seriously glamorous.
Virginia Woolf, like most of us, suffered terribly from what she called “frock consciousness.”
She cared what people thought of her clothes, but she also cared that people knew she cared about her clothes. Serious people aren’t meant to care about such things!
But we do, and we can.
Virginia Woolf illustrated the utter agony of feeling wrong in your clothes, in yourself, as per Zadie’s essay in British Vogue:
“This is the last day of June & finds me in black despair because Clive laughed at my new hat, Vita pitied me, & I sank to the depths of gloom.”
And to quote Zadie Smith, “Oh, Virginia, girl—I feel you! The shame of wearing the too-big thing or the overly shiny thing or the thing that’s just wrong in every way for the occasion… We’ve all been there.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong. But the thing about clothes too is that the right outfit can make you invincible. Which seems to be an awfully promising kind of power to be cast off so easily.
It’s the same for sexiness. Alexa Chung said on Bella Freud’s podcast that a whole generation of women (mostly millennials who were too busy girlbossing themselves into the sun!) denied themselves sexy clothes. In my ‘20s my favourite dress was quite literally a hessian sack (by a Danish designer but still)! But then I binge watched Emily in Paris, which as ever, arrived at the exact moment of the year when you need it most, and was reminded by Sylvie Grateau that sexiness has very little to do with age and mostly to do with attitude.
Can a serious person wear a floral dress with gumboots? (Yes!)
The inimitable Tina Brown said in a recent podcast interview with the Times that she could publish 30 thousand words on, say, atrocity in El Salvador but everybody only wanted to talk about her buzz. Glamour is a double edge sword, too much of it, supposedly, and nobody takes you seriously. But nobody wants to just take their lumps either. Let’s be real. Anyway, as Tina Brown also said on the podcast, it’s better to be talked about than to sink without a trace. Also I love nothing more than hearing very smart people talk about ‘un-serious’ things, like Rachel Kushner with Bella Freud, where they spoke about not letting intelligence get in the way of a good outfit, and vice versa.
Here’s another thing I’ve been thinking about - how Victoria Beckham says at the end of her Netflix documentary that she just wants to make her family proud of her. And her husband, Sir David Beckham - former soccer star and Cotswold beekeeper - says they’d be proud of her if she made cheese on toast. The point being that she doesn’t need to prove anything - and also children will never be impressed by their parents’ achievements! It’s probably worth remembering that. Also you should never regret the outfits of your youth or getting a throne for your wedding. I’m so bored of good taste anyway!
In 2026 I want to wear sexier clothes and read more books. Go high and low. Revere glamour. Take clothes seriously but know that none of it really matters all that much. Don’t give up your soul for it! Because the thing is, I’ve also been thinking about how true character is how you behave when nobody can see you, and how kindness doesn’t expect anything in return. Glamour comes up hollow without any grace, for others and for yourself.
Here’s to having both good character and true glamour in 2026 - and wearing our slinkiest, silkiest shirts just a button below ‘good taste.’
Books
Heart the Lover - This book broke my heart and I think is my favourite of the year. It really got under my skin, like first love tends to do.
I then immediately went back to read Lily King’s earlier Writers & Lovers which - and I won’t spoil anything - can be viewed as a companion. It is also a reminder that you shouldn’t give up on your secret dreams. Mine is to write a book, just to keep me accountable.
I gobbled up It Girl of course, like any self-respecting Francophlian fashion girl.
I’m re-reading Madame Bovary, poor Emma Bovary!
Wreck, by Catherine Newman. Just lovely, a warm hug for anxious mothers.
This was compelling, unnerving and brilliant - Intimacies by Kate Kitamura.
Workhorse is hitting way too close to the bone. I am, obviously, a workhorse.
Love
Annie xx