As a teenager I was a goth and in my backpacking early twenties I was more of a hippy, but now at nearly 29 with a husband, baby, blog, freelance career and country cottage I'm not really sure what my style is anymore.
I'm not the most confident person in the world and the whole goth thing was an escapism from school bullies whilst the hippy thing was simply the vibe of Brazil, Thailand, Australia and other countries I found myself exploring on my worldwide adventures. I've never really chosen a particular fashion, rather I've indulged whatever happened to be around me at a given time but with lot of different aspects to my life now, I have recently found myself uncertain of what to go for and therefore sticking with the easy option - generally skinny jeans and a baggy top.
Last month was BritMums Live and whilst it's not exactly London Fashion Week, I wanted to embrace having a couple of days where I was just me. Well, the 'me' without snot and banana on my trousers from the little person and the 'me' that could drink some wine without worrying about getting up for a night feed. Phil, Toby and I went clothes shopping to find me an outfit and I felt so down in the dumps about it. How stupid is that? A fully grown woman with a husband and a child, sulking because nothing looked right, utterly ridiculous!
In the end, I found a gorgeous pair of floral print trousers which were the exact opposite of any style I would expect myself to wear. Phil teamed them with a lovely floaty black top and I was sorted, yet still I felt so nervous putting them on just in case the magical changing room mirrors had lied and actually huge pink flowery trousers weren't a good match for a short ginger girl. Can't imagine why I'd think that... Yet, all worries aside, I had a few people telling me that I looked good and suddenly I started to feel good too!
I'm slowly building my confidence. It helps that I have an amazing husband who tells me he loves me and that I'm beautiful all the time. It helps that I have fab friends, both in 'real life' and 'blogging life' (many cover both of those categories now!) who are supportive of me, who notice if something is new and different but also if I'm not quite myself. The most important bit, though, is that I'm realising that my style is not one image, one type of trouser or top or dress which defines me as a whole, but rather an array of clothes which are suitable for the different versions of 'me'.
There isn't one label for who I am as a person now, so why should there only be one style of clothing? When I'm Mummy, I'll stick to the comfy clothes which allow me to crouch on the floor and play with Toby. When I'm Wife I'll dress up a little, stick on a pretty dress and some heels. When I'm Professional I'll be somewhere in the middle, along the lines of my BritMums outfit or maybe a nice a-line skirt and a blouse and when I'm on holiday (one day!) maybe I'll bust out a bit of the old skool hippy!
As a busy working mum and wife with a passion for rock music and travelling, I am an adaptable person and I'm realising that I am not defined by my clothes, I am defined by the steps I take, my actions and my choices. My clothes simply have to work with whatever Hannah hat I'm metaphorically wearing on any given day.
So to my original question, what is my mummy style? Well it's comfortable, it's most definitely machine washable, is dress up or dress down-able. It's fun on fun days, smart on professional days, heck maybe even a little bit alluring on date days or nights. It's whatever I need it to be and it's flexible. It's me, in all my forms.