A Grand Summer Outfit

A post about “market dressing”, inspired by the fashion pages of The Times and the new Sherston Market

(This piece first appeared as a column in the August 2023 issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News.)

Much as I love reading The Times’ lifestyle supplement, I find its fashion features hard to take.

Some of the clothes in my wardrobe are older than my grown-up daughter, and many came from supermarkets or jumble sales. I flinch when the newspaper’s fashion editors quote high three-figure price tags for a single garment or accessory. Reading their advice, I feel like a Martian peering down at Planet Earth, perplexed by its inhabitants’ behaviour.

 

So it was with surprise and delight that last week I came across a fashion feature that at first glance seemed made-to-measure for me.

“Market dressing”, according to fashion editor Harriet Walker, is going to be “one of summer’s big trends”.

“Market dressing” means donning the kind of outfit you might wear to go shopping in your local market – the outdoor, traditional kind, rather than a supermarket like Tesco. You just slip on a summer frock, grab a wicker basket, and amble down to your nearest market square, whether on holiday abroad or at home here in the Cotswolds.

So far, so good. Addicted to wicker baskets, I have them in all shapes and sizes. In my wardrobe are plenty of summer frocks.

But at this point, my standards part company with Ms Walker’s. According to her:

• the must-have designer straw basket retails at £675
• “the ultimate market dress” costs £420.

Yes, her recommended summer outfit comes to over a grand – and that’s without matching shoes. Marie-Antoinette playing milkmaids springs to mind.

My most expensive basket cost about twenty quid, and my newest dress less than a tenner in Sainsbury’s sale. I may still drift about the new Sherston Market in a summer frock, stashing my shopping in wickerware, but as I do so, I’ll be feeling smug for saving so much on my outfit.

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Founded by the enterprising Holly of The Loaf Shack Bakery, who you’ll know from her stall outside Hawkesbury Stores on alternate Saturdays, Sherston Market has stalls offering a wide range of fresh local produce including vegetables, cheese, meat, honey, bread and cakes. It will be running every Thursday behind Sherston Village Hall from 10.30am until 1.30pm. Summer frock and wicker basket optional.

Here are a few photos from last week’s Sherston Market to whet your appetite…

 

A Post on a Similar Theme from My Blog Archive:

Why Pay A Grand for A Handbag?

And Finally…

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