What Mums Wear: Liberty Collins, Freelance Retail Consultant.
"I was surrounded by amazing supportive friends, great clothes and slowly a new identity formed."
What mums wear is a new series that takes a deep dive into what we wear, our relationship with fashion and how it evolves throughout motherhood, just as we do. We ask our most stylish mum friends their best tips on what to wear and what they consider when getting dressed each day.
When I first came across @libertyfleurcollins, I loved that she liked to have fun with her clothes. Her style was cool, colourful, unforced and just different (in the best possible way). After I delved a little deeper, it became apparent she had a knack for getting dressed – pairing unlikely colours and patterns and turning layering into an art form – dresses over jeans, poking from beneath fluffy motley coats and a green pistachio-coloured trench adorned vibrant tees and suit pants.
I also liked that it was only sometimes new items appeared on her feed. Her. caption was true, she was a “repeat offender”. I noticed pieces carried through from last season or last year but were now worn in new ways. This also tells me Liberty has an eye for quality, a trait that is both innate and learned from working in fashion for many years. A "Shop Girl" who ensures her clothes work for her – no matter the climate. Read on as Liberty Collins explains the power of clothes, how their magic made her feel anew after having her girls, and how motherhood helped her self-confidence.
Most of the time, my weeks can be quite hectic. I have two daughters, Queenie aged 6 and Birdie aged 3, and I work as a freelance Retail Consultant. Which means, essentially I help brands develop in the UK and European market. I started with CAMILLA AND MARC four years ago and recently picked up St Rose Fragrance. I work Thursday-Saturday with Harrods and Selfridges who are our stockists for CAMILLA AND MARC. Birdie, my youngest, is in nursery (daycare) every afternoon so Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are kept aside for other clients.
Saturday has always been a work day for me. I’m a former ‘Shop Girl’ – I love the buzz of the shop floor on Saturday and still like to get stuck in when I can! Sundays are our family day and we usually hit the farmers market at Victoria Park and get together with friends and family. We moved back to London from Sydney four years ago, and the novelty of catching up with my sisters, parents and in-laws still hasn't rubbed off! We love to get about London and explore new places and revisit our old haunts. East London is so snazzy these days. A very different place from our youth but still full of creative and fabulous people which gives me lots of outfit inspiration at every turn!
I also take a lot of fashion inspiration from Lewis Hamilton. I love that he is brave and bold and unafraid to wear the full look as the designer intended. He marches to the beat of his own drum, and I admire that. I’m also blessed to have the most creative and inspiring BFFs. One of them, Sophie (@sophieendrey), has been working in fashion for years, and she collects the most amazing clothes and wears the archives on repeat.
My style is more… muddled haha. I like colour. I think living in London means you have to layer in creative ways. Have you ever been on the Tube in winter? It's a furnace! I really don’t want to look like I’ve thought too much about it (even when secretly I have!). I think looking polished without looking done is key. I don’t wear makeup unless I'm going out and then maybe only eyeshadow and mascara.
Most of my wardrobe is made up of jeans, jeans and more jeans. I love denim more than anything else – low waist, wide-leg, boyfriend, acid wash – the lot. I suppose the outfit I've been wearing all my life is ‘jeans and a nice top’. I also love a mini skirt which I think is a side effect of living in sunny Australia. I get such a kick out of trying to make my Sydney clothes work in the London climate.
Comfortable clothes and shoes are key for my everyday looks. I’ve been known to leave a dinner early because I was uncomfortable in a super tight corset! If I am uncomfortable I'm unable to think of anything else; this started even before I had kids! My jeans are all on the bigger side and I don’t think I’ve ever worn a bodycon anything my entire life so I don’t think my style has changed that much since becoming a mother. Aside from looking more closely at the care label. Do other mum’s check the care label and see if everything is washable? Having to dry-clean can so put me off buying something these days. That said, working with clothing for the past 25 years has taught me you can pretty much wash everything (just about). Birdie wiped her nose on the shoulder of my freshly dry-cleaned CAMILLA AND MARC suit the other week…. devastated.
I’m an East London girl through and through. The dressier the event the more likely I am to dress down. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I wore heels, a dress and make up. At my sisters wedding I wore a black Wynn Hamlyn dress and Borgani wedge boots. I love a dainty heel but I would put it with huge baggy jeans and a cute top.
I love clothes but I'm fairly anti-fashion. I believe clothes have power, they make you feel something, they can make a bad day good, they can give confidence, they can be armour. But Fashion on the other hand, can be elitist which can make me feel “not enough”, and this makes me buy more than I need. The more I buy, the less I style it up. Fashion is separate from style to me.
If I’m working, I'm planning my outfit the night before. Work is my stage, I love peacocking around the West End of London. I try to dress for the client I am working with but my style is always prevalent. I cover a lot of ground during my day so my shoes have to be comfortable. A fabulous coat is a must as I run from stockist to stockist. I get so much joy from putting unexpected items together and find outfit planning really relaxing (not to mention helpful on school mornings!). When I’m at home with the kids it’s whatever I get my hands on first. This is why I make sure I have a wardrobe of winners!
My accessories do most of the heavy lifting in my wardrobe. I’m a very lazy accessory shopper. I’ve had my Loewe puzzle [bag] for 5 years and it is my only bag. I wear my Gia Borgani boots pretty much every other day, the other half of the time I wear my Y/Project plastic pointed kitten heels. I recently got the Camper Junction lace up’s and I’ve been wearing them solidly for about two weeks!
I know how it feels to lose a bit of yourself and your style. After the birth of my first child I struggled with my body. I didn’t know what I “needed” in my wardrobe or who the bloody hell was I now. Every week I would go to Zara, not wanting to spend money on this imposter size, getting it wrong each time and left feeling not confident at all – that was until I went back to work as a 'Saturday girl at Scanlan Theodore. It saved me. I was surrounded by amazing supportive friends, great clothes and slowly a new identity formed.
Now, I have far more confidence in myself. My kids think I'm brilliant and I think it’s important for them to see me think I'm brilliant too! Everything changed once I had my girls, and realised my identity was so intertwined to theirs. They look like me, they have my mannerisms – how could I criticise myself without criticising them?
Want more Liberty? Follow – @libertyfleurcollins
My kids are teenagers, and I’m finally feeling like I’m rediscovering my personal style. What you said about clothes having power to make us feel good but fashion is elitist and how it’s opposite of style - wow! That really spoke to me!