‘I’m not a crisp white shirt sort of person’: creating a template for timeless chic

Lauren Bravo: ‘Don’t be afraid to buy the kind of attention-seeking clothes people cross the street to compliment.’ Photograph: Phill Taylor/The Guardian

Once upon a time, I had a skirt I wore to death. A wrapover mini in navy windowpane check, it wasn’t especially on-trend but it was one of the most flattering and versatile things I’d ever owned. I wore it endlessly – or, until I accidentally shrunk it in the wash. I cried.

My thoughts returned to that skirt often as the years passed, until one day I did what we all do with old flames: I looked it up online. And there it was, on Vinted, looking as good as the day we’d first met. Nearly a decade on, the skirt and I are back together once again. A fairytale for the ages! I exclusively handwash it now.