Emma Sells

So, today was the day. This morning I woke up and bravely faced the world wearing this season’s trickiest of items, the playsuit. The chosen one was a gorgeous red silky one from PPQ’s range for ASOS (click here to see it). My first observation on donning it was that it was very short. Bum skimmingly short. I was showing off way more leg than normal but, thankfully, my trusty black woolly tights were on hand to help me preserve my modesty. In fact, teamed with a black vest and some black patent Mary-Janes (remember, heels are pretty much essential to this look if you want to avoid looking like a toddler), the overall effect was not nearly as dreadful as I had anticipated.

Given that the playsuit was designed by PPQ, my editor decided that I should debut it at their show this morning at London Fashion Week. My first reaction to this was one of slight horror - trying to decide what to wear when mingling with the great and the good of the fashion world is hard enough without having to rock up in a look that I am still very much undecided about. On reflection, however, I realise that this is the perfect place. In an industry where eccentrics rule ok, my little red playsuit was hardly likely to cause a stir.

So how did it go down? Well, I didn’t draw any gasps of horror or confusion as I made my way through the crowds, ticket in hand. In fact, those who cared to comment were decidedly enthusiastic. ‘Frilly and fabulous’, I was declared. Quite. As for me, I’m still undecided. Not because it didn’t look good; with the right pair of heels this look was much easier to master than I had forseen. If I’d seen someone across the room wearing it I would have thought it was super-cool but the thing is that it just wasn’t very me. And that’s basically what it comes down to isn’t it? So long as you have confidence in what you’re wearing it’s possible to carry off pretty much any look, however outlandish or ridiculous (one look at your average catwalk front row is enough to prove that theory). So my advice to you is give playsuits a chance because you never know, you might love them. But there’s no shame in deciding that your favourite vintage dress is just more your style…