Being confident in what you wear…
As I approach the young age of 50, it occurred to me that most of my life I had dressed for a role, I was no longer feeling confident about the clothes I was wearing.
The awkward teenager wearing clothes mainly picked by my mum and then rebelling against my mum’s choice in my late teens. In my early 20’s I was dressing for a job I didn’t want, by 30 dressing for an established career in media (power suits with shoulder pads), in my 40’s dressing as a mum, so basically anything I didn’t mind getting ruined, breast feeding tops, stretchy jeggings for climbing through jungle gyms!
I had started to feel confused about what to wear, which shop to go to, I wanted my own identity and to wear clothes that made me feel good, confident, not old and frumpy and definitely not the same as I did in my 30s…
The office environment started to relax dress codes, so where I had needed a wardrobe for work and one for home, I pondered the possibility that it could be the same wardrobe, perhaps I could eventually dress as ‘me’.
Before I started a career in publishing, I had studied fashion, played with fabrics and patterns and created a collection of knitted evening wear at a time that knitwear was reserved for jumpers and cardigans. Fate had other ideas for me, and I abandoned any dream of working in fashion for working in trade press, marketing and eventually PR comms.
And so three decades later, inspired by my daughters love of art, I picked up a paintbrush and painted a canvas for the first time. A whole new world of possibilities unfolded, as I drew on 30 years of working and learning, embraced new technology and decided to create my first collection of digitally produced, slow fashion, Art Katsura.
Be Bold, be colourful, be confident
My collection comes from a place of wanting to be bold, colourful and confident, using colours from the House of Colour palettes. I learned, through my sister, that wearing the right colours really can make you look 10 years younger, and to be honest, who doesn’t want that?
I wanted clothes that stood out, that allowed me to dress for who I had become, not for a role… a daughter, a mum, a wife, a business professional.
I wanted clothes that could transform a wardrobe, be dressed up or dressed down, didn’t need ironing (quite frankly, life is just far too short to be spent ironing) and didn’t cost the earth, either the planet or the wallet!
Being kind to the environment was important, I chose to bespoke make items to order, digitally printing fabric created from my artwork and embracing the slow fashion movement.
And so my customers have helped shape the range, many women sharing their personal likes and dislikes…it seems I’m not the only 40 something that knows what I like and want.
The collection will continue to evolve, at the moment I love working with chiffon, creating kaftan shapes for all sizes. Kaftans work brilliantly over vest tops, worn with trousers or shorts for a more casual look, with heels and jewellery for a more dressed up look, and slipped into a suitcase to wear over swimwear.
Embracing change can be empowering and for the first time in years I am excited about growing older, may be that’s the wisdom of time, or perhaps it’s the confidence of knowing what I like to wear.
Rachel Branson is the Creator of Art Katsura and Publisher of Wellbeing Magazine. Follow me @artkatsura