The Thing about Florals

Zara kimono (similar)
Sezane tank (similar)
Grlfrnd jeans (c/o REVOLVE)
Raye mules (c/o REVOLVE)
Celine sunglasses
Gucci handbag
& Other Stories necklace (similar)
Keltie Leanne Designs ring (c/o)
Madewell rings
Urban Outfitters earrings (similar)
Location: The Manitoba Legislative Building – Winnipeg, Manitoba

I had a real thing about floral prints in 2010. I know this because I recently started sorting through the Coco & Vera archives from the very beginning – and getting rid of a lot of old posts in the process. This space has always been about my fashion journey and, while the journey is important, I admit that I don’t think the photographic evidence of it, especially of the early days, when I was clearly trying to be creative on a tight budget but not necessarily succeeding, needs to be around forever.

The reason my obsessions with florals seems so odd to me now is that I have never considered myself a floral person. Even in the darkest days of my all-pink-all-the-time obsession in high school, I rarely gravitated towards florals – or prints of any kind, for that matter. In university, I fell hard for stripes and I still have a few striped tops in my wardrobe, but I rare them rarely. And apart from stripes, I don’t look back and recall any periods of time when I loved particular prints.

But I’m clearly misremembering because in 2010, I was all about florals. It started with a pair of floral leggings from Aritzia that bore a startingly resemblance to the pair of floral stirrup pants I wore on the first day of grade one. Why I thought, in my mid-twenties, that I should revisit my six-year-old style is beyond me, but I wanted to love those floral leggings the same way I loved the original version. I didn’t, of course. Floral leggings are cute on a six-year-old but confusing on an adult. So I bought a tank top with the same print. And that was just the beginning.

When I look back at photos of the events leading up to our wedding that year, they invariably involve a floral print. I wore a floral mini-skirt from J. Crew to my bridal shower. A pair of floral shorts to my Winnipeg bachelorette. A floral dress for our rehearsal dinner. The list goes on – and on, and on. And then, abruptly, it stops. By 2011, I had renounced florals almost entirely. In recent years, I have even claimed to dislike them. And I’ll be honest, mostly I do – give me a fresh cut bouquet any day, but I don’t want flowers on my clothes. With one notable exception…

…because I am obsessed with kimonos. I’ll be honest, I think the obsession has more to do with the fact that a kimono is really just a bathrobe that doubles as socially acceptable daywear. But whatever the reason, I want all the kimonos. I started wearing them last summer, acquired a second one this season and grab one almost every time I leave the house – especially in the evening when it might be cool outside. They’re just so effortless and easy to wear.

It isn’t 2010 anymore. Florals aren’t really my thing. But kimonos definitely are – and when you put a floral print on a kimono, somehow, it changes everything. For me, anyway.