I wanted to add a page to say I am proudly a feminist and believe that we should all be so. There’s no denying that fairytales have had a bad rap lately, and so they should, when they are old fashioned and sexist and promote the opinion that women’s roles are to be beautiful and rescued, or alternatively old, ugly, unmarried and evil. It’s a shame, but many fairytales were written when the world was a much more unequal place. (I’m not getting into what it’s like now; that’s a post for my personal blog for another day!) However, I’m not intending on aligning myself with that side of fairytales; which, by the way, were often distorted to meet men’s ideals in the first half of the twentieth century, or changed to make convenient happy endings for Disney or pantomime.

If you read through Grimms’ Fairytales or other old collections of stories and folklore; the overriding themes aren’t about the prince rescuing the princess; they’re about granting wishes; magic spells and most of all they’re about adventure. They are often tales of morality, and the people who are good and kind are the ones who win at life. And let’s not forget that there are many modern authors who are writing excellent fairytales that will become the same sorts of classics that Cinderella, Snow White and Aladdin are to us. Off the top of my head I’m thinking of Holly Black, J.K. Rowling, Terry Jones and Susanna Clarke.

So it is fairytales with equality and diversity in mind that I’m thinking of when I’m making clothing for Threads of a Fairytale. And yes, it is still often about feeling like a princess, because, honestly, who wouldn’t want to? I don’t meet the conventions of what beauty is often defined to be; I’m over forty, overweight, and my dyed hair is usually more like a bird’s nest than flowing curly locks! Yet when I’m the one modelling one of my special occasion dresses ready to be listed in the shop, I can honestly say, I feel like a beautiful princess from a fairytale. That is how I want you to feel when you wear your item of clothing that I’ve made for you. I want you to feel confident, adventurous, beautiful throughout, and proud to be exactly who you are.

Please follow the link if you would like to shop fairytale fashion.