Renee's Rugged Rags

Renee’s Rugged Rags

As we progress though this CoVid lockdown, and I am starting to think about cleaning another bookshelf, I have been diverted by another wee book of quotes – these ones from Oscar Wilde.  Now what I’m about to say will make some of you rear up in politically correct consternation.  I had been harbouring these views because of it – but then Oscar Wilde reached out having once said this… “Fashion is what one wears oneself: what is unfashionable is what others wear.”

My views are about to set sail!   Early on in the lockdown there was a lot of talk about transgressing boundaries.  David Clarke and his bike.  That awful man in the Christchurch supermarket.  The leader of the opposition in his limo.  But before they took the limelight, there was another boundary regularly being transgressed – the most recent of which was the tipping point that sent me scurrying to my keyboard to pen this vent. 

The clothing of the lovely Renee Wright who is one of TVNZ’s weather readers.  Please be assured that my views on this matter are in no way a criticism of Renee herself who I think is a magnificent weather reader and undoubtedly a very nice person however; she regularly appears in ensembles that stand out for their lack of sartorial elegance.  Funnily enough during my cogitations for this wee treatise I found I am not the only one grappling with this weighty matter.  Some may be quite relieved that I am bringing it to your attention.

This week Renee totally distracted me from the weather by appearing looking like an inverted malformed daffodil, in a foul orange frock topped off (or more appropriately bottomed out) by pink shoes.  A visual cacophony.

According to the New Zealand Herald, TVNZ has one in-house stylist.  I’m not sure if this person decides what the presenters will wear but if he or she does; I think he or she doesn’t like Renee Wright very much.  One can’t help wondering who else in the TVNZ line-up should be sharing the load.  The most outlandish get-ups seem to have been reserved solely for Renee.  Perhaps she likes them – but she doesn’t have to look at them. 

I consider myself to have accumulated a few basic principles about what constitutes style; and I’m easily distracted when I see a lack of it.  While I’m old enough to understand the value of taking advice from others;  I’m also old enough to know that there is a time (especially if you’re a woman) to go with your gut feeling.  I’m wondering what Renee’s gut feeling is, but I’m also certain the one in-house stylist at TVNZ needs their butt kicked for allowing her anywhere near the front end of a camera in some of the frocks she has donned (voluntarily or not) along the way. 

Have to say, I’m with Oscar.  “Fashion is what one wears oneself: what is unfashionable is what others wear.”