Boris Johnson, prime minister of the United Kingdom, who just returned to work after suffering from COVID-19, has a daughter named Lara who, according to her website, is a fashion writer. On Tuesday, British Vogue published an essay in which she expresses just how much she misses her fancy clothes, and how she’s coping in the meantime. Unfortunately, it comes across as a bit posh.
Lara has been staying at her childhood home in Oxfordshire since March. She wasn’t prepared to be away from her personal closet for so long, and has resorted to wearing her teenage wardrobe. It’s brought back a lot of memories, she writes, but she still misses her secondhand Prada pumps, her Marine Serre top, and the Issey Miyake Homme Plissé trousers she stole from her boyfriend. “Being away from those clothes — even with nowhere to go — has left me feeling unsure of myself,” she writes.
Clothes and accessories are valid tools of self-expression for a lot of people, myself included. I can understand Lara’s desire to dress up, to support the brands she loves, and her longing for nice, beautiful things right now. But what she writes next is arguably less relatable…
“I’m trying my best not to buy more clothes right now, uncertain about future financial prospects and conscious it isn’t the time to splurge,” she says. “But, I must confess, I did buy two headbands — one black and fluffy, from Shrimps, and one pink and from Prada — that I’ve been drooling over for months.”
Did she have to confess? Did she? And did Vogue have to encourage her? I have no idea what her future financial prospects are, but her recent accessories acquisitions make me think that she’ll be okay. In a moment when economic inequality, globally, and in the U.K., has never been more conspicuous — and when so many peoples’ lives are in her father’s hands — I might have kept this confession to myself.
“I’m allotting these spending choices as self-care; I needed something to remind myself that sometimes, in the midst of all this uncertainty, it’s ok to use fashion to remind myself who I am today,” Lara explains. “Like everyone else, I can’t wait for this pandemic to be over. I can’t wait to be reunited with my pre-lockdown wardrobe. But more importantly, I can’t wait to be reunited with the people who helped make all the memories the clothes I’m currently wearing have imbued.”
Well, Bob’s your uncle, I guess.