The Miranda Holder

To the one who’s always fine.

I wrote this list because nobody handed it to me. For a long time I held everyone and everything up, and I believed falling apart was a luxury other people could afford... that showing emotion was weakness, that saying no needed a written excuse, that looking after myself could wait until everyone else was sorted.

It couldn’t. The feelings I kept pushing down didn’t politely disappear. They waited... and they grew. And somewhere along the way I learned, properly, that the strong one is allowed to be human too.

So these are the reminders I needed back then, written down for the woman who needs them today.

And if that woman isn’t you, you’ll know exactly who she is. The friend who holds everyone together and never once asks to be held. Send this to her instead of trying to find the words. Sometimes “I saw this and thought of you” is the whole message.

Love Mx

This kinda chic trend is the first fashion trend in years I’ve wanted to stand up and applaud… and I’m the woman who wrote the columns.

Here is what I never put in any of them: chic was mostly a leash. A beautifully made one, but a leash… every “rule” was really an instruction to be smaller, quieter, more acceptable, and we called obeying it “good taste.” So when I see this trend calling ordinary, sovereign little acts chic, the early night, the unapologetic no, the solo table for one, I want to applaud, because that’s the definition I wish I’d been allowed to print.

Chic was never the outfit. It was always the woman who belongs to herself inside it.

Send this to the friend who apologises for going home early. Tell her the stylist said she’s the chicest one there.

Love Mx

What I wore in Spain, part three… this is what taking your own advice looks like.

Supper with a good friend, the evening light doing that thing it does here, and a sea that clearly hadn’t read the plan. I had my good shoes on, so off they came for a paddle… and the waves picked that exact moment to get ambitious. I got properly splashed, we got the giggles, and this is what the camera caught.

The dress is DVF - Diane von Furstenberg, and it isn’t new… I’ve had it for years. I bought it the way I buy everything, colour first, because this orange is one of mine. It warms my complexion, brings out my eyes, and makes me feel alive before I’ve even looked in a mirror. It lives in Spain because it’s the one I can throw on barefoot at six and belt up for dinner at eight.

Because great style was never about buying more clothes. It’s about wearing the ones you already own, with intention… and choosing them for how they make you feel, not how they make you look. A dress you feel alive in, worn often, will beat a wardrobe full of almosts every single time.

Last week I asked you to stop saving your best. This is what’s waiting on the other side… salt on the hem and not one regret.

So be honest with me… are you team wear-it-into-the-sea, or team keep-it-for-best? I’m taking a headcount.

Love Mx