I always dress better on holiday. I have known this about myself for years and have never quite managed to solve it. On holiday I wear colour, I wear prints, I wear things that drape and move and feel like they were chosen with some intention. At home I wear navy and grey and the same rotation of reliable pieces that are fine but not interesting. The gap between holiday me and home me, sartorially speaking, has been a source of mild frustration for longer than I care to admit.
My name is Celia Drummond. I am a solicitor from Guildford, and I am forty-one years old, which I mention because I think the reluctance to wear bold prints at home is partly an age thing and partly a confidence thing and partly just habit. On holiday, the rules feel different. At home, I revert.
The Yumi Blue Bird Print Viscose Wide Leg Trousers are the piece that has done the most to close that gap.
What I Was Looking For
I came back from a week in Portugal in May with a very clear idea of what I wanted: trousers that felt like the ones I had been wearing on holiday. Lightweight, fluid, with a print that was genuinely interesting rather than safe. Wide-leg, because wide-leg trousers are the silhouette that makes me feel most like myself when I am not overthinking it. And an elasticated waist, because I am a grown adult who has accepted that comfort and style are not mutually exclusive.
I found the Yumi Blue Bird Print Viscose Wide Leg Trousers at ALTOE about a week after I got back. The bird print was the first thing: a tropical-inspired design in blue tones that was bold without being chaotic, the kind of print that reads as a considered choice rather than a novelty. The decorative border hem added a detail that elevated it beyond a standard printed trouser.
The fabric was 100% viscose, which is the right choice for this kind of trouser. Viscose drapes beautifully, feels cool and fluid against the skin, and moves in a way that synthetic fabrics do not. At 103cm length it would sit at the floor on me, which is exactly where a wide-leg trouser should sit. Elasticated waist. Machine washable. Made by Yumi, whose fit I trusted.
At £40 it was a considered purchase. I ordered it on a Sunday. It arrived Tuesday.
First Wear
I put them on for a dinner with friends on the Friday evening. With a simple white linen top and flat sandals, which is the holiday formula I had been trying to replicate. The viscose draped exactly as I had hoped, fluid and easy, moving with me rather than holding a shape. The print was the right level of statement: present, interesting, not overwhelming.
Two friends asked about them before we had ordered drinks. One of them said I looked like I had just come back from somewhere. I told her I had, three weeks ago, and that I had been trying to hold onto that feeling. She understood immediately.
The elasticated waist was, as expected, excellent. Comfortable throughout a long dinner, no digging, no adjusting. The border hem sat at exactly the right point on my feet. The whole thing felt effortless in the way that the best holiday clothes feel effortless, like you have not tried very hard and it has worked out anyway.
Three Months On
The bird print trousers have been worn to dinners, to a garden party, to a Sunday lunch, to a friend's birthday in a rooftop bar, and on two occasions to the office on a Friday when I decided that life was too short for navy trousers. They have been machine washed several times and the viscose has not shrunk or lost its drape. The print has not faded. The border hem is still crisp.
More than the practical side: they have changed how I dress at home. Not dramatically, not overnight, but incrementally. Having one piece that is genuinely bold and that I wear regularly has made me more willing to reach for other things I had been leaving on the hanger. The trousers were the permission slip I apparently needed.
My sister, who has been listening to me talk about the holiday wardrobe problem for approximately a decade, saw me wearing them at a family lunch and said: finally. I am choosing to take that as a compliment.
Worth It?
Completely. If you dress better on holiday than at home and you have been trying to work out why, part of the answer is probably that you give yourself permission to wear things that are more interesting when you are away. The Yumi bird print trousers are the kind of piece that gives you that permission at home. They are well made, they drape beautifully, and the print is the right level of statement for someone who is working up to being bolder.
Find the Yumi Blue Bird Print Viscose Wide Leg Trousers at ALTOE. Listed in Latest Products, Apparel & Accessories, Clothing, and Pants.
Wear the print. You are not on holiday but you can dress like you are.
— Celia Drummond, Guildford
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