Fashion Innocence. I Love My family!

The whole Brexit saga has made life living in Europe away from one’s family all the more difficult. Postage is not only costly but also unreliable and slow. In the summer, it was my father’s birthday and as we like to buy things, which are ‘needed’ in the true British practical sense, I asked my mother “what does Dad need?” and she told me he needed a new polo shirt in Navy blue. Sending from Germany something from Closed may have been too late, so I went online and choose the best my money could buy for Dad. A Navy blue polo shirt with a certain green reptile was carefully placed on the left breast position.

One month later, I finally managed to visit my parents after over a year of restrictions and uncertainty of whether we would be an infection hazard. One morning, I asked my mother if the t-shirt was the right fit and if Dad liked it. “Oh yes, he’s got it on today!”.

I looked again, and said, ”Is that the one which was delivered? I think they must have mixed up the order, there’s no branding”.

My mother replied, “that’s the one, I had to sew a pocket on the chest for Dad’s phone he always has to have a pocket on the left side”.

I was in tears laughing, so innocent and so funny. My mother had carefully sewn a navy blue cotton pocket over the green crocodile, so my dad could have his phone in the position he liked, covering up the reason why most people would choose to pay the higher price for a polo shirt. This is why I love them so much…. They bring me back down to earth with a bump and a very funny story.

What is it about icons? They have become to most of us boxes for us to tick off in our status–to-do lists. Icons and symbols become instant trust, even though many of us have not researched into the company policy or know anything about where and how the product was made a symbol can create an instant friend in the consumer’s eye.  I work daily with logos and branding and it is clear that for the mass audience this is a sign of trust and desire. In the book Dear Doris, I tell the story of how the Rooster came into play on the box of one of the world’s favourite breakfast cereals, just a little Welsh joke.