And then just like that out of nowhere a single grey hair straight down my signature middle path reared its lifeless head. Trust me I have been excitedly anticipating my debut grey hair for years now but not the ‘holy crap, I am old!’ realisation that followed shortly after. I sensed my fate to be that of a somewhat graceful experienced tinker fairy. But here I am in this Covid-19 weird world pause and boom I am old. Yip PMS, pimples, wrinkles and grey hair say hi to the somewhat awkward middle-aged millennial. I will be turning 40 at the end of this unprecedented year and geez this sure does feel like that ugly duckling phase – please can we fast forward to gracefully grownup already. I was once a well-paid (note the slight cynical tone) accountant before baby number two and my creative catapult in these last few years.

 

Sure, fashion has been mostly fun so far but one thing that fashion does fast (pun on fast fashion) is it most definitely ages you. I blame it on the bright lights and sometimes sleepless nights. What fashion has not provided is finance (can I get a pension up in here)? Plain and simple building a sustainable brand in this ridiculously fast paced frenzy has not been for the faint hearted or the financially fragile. Also, as a millennial instagrammer and occasional tik-toker (I am making these words up as I go), I have somewhat lost sight of the fact that I have come from 6 generations of ladder climbers. Fact, 5 generations ago my ancestors came to toil the soil and plant sugar cane fast forward to my generation where I could pretty much be anything I wanted to be (off course a doctor or accountant would be preferential). So Shamyra Moodley the certified accountant loves and marries a doctor, Asian goals right there aside from the fact that doctors are risking their lives right now and need to be isolated from their family which is a whole other blog.

 

Hold up not so fast – even as decently well-educated millennial's we might be the first generation to have been hit twice, first the 2008/2009 recession and now this pandemic. We might be the first generation to in fact end up worse than the previous generation. Both our pensions have been poured into our mortgage and my savings into the last 4 years of extended maternity leave – entrepreneurship leave I prefer to call it with two young kids. Suddenly breaking mould and taking risks as markets come plunging does make me feel rather vulnerable. Now I am sure there’s some psychological definition and stage for my roller-coaster of feelings in the days of Covid-19 – but please can I request that the powers that be “do not pass begin or collect R200” and proceed directly to finding and delivering a cure to all. Then I can gracefully enter (grey hair and all) the new kinder, greener, slower paced world and spend my last 20 something years of income earning conquering, if not contouring 😉, the face of sustainable fashion (I am a millennial after all).

 

A little feathered but still a fairy

 

Laaniraani