Black trouser challenge 7 and my #instarant

Another week and another variation based on these fabulous frilly fancy pants by River Island. No, this isn't a sponsored post, just my personal style challenge to see how many outfits I can create by building on these wonderful ruffled trousers. This week's offering is here -










I was toying with the idea of nude shoes to tie in with the nude and eau de nil shell top, but decided on these wedge sandals as they feature both colours and also are comfortable enough to wear all day long. I bought the silk top in a second hand store in Ireland quite a few years ago and still deem it as a special find. Costing only 20 euros it's down to less than 4 euros per wear now. The sandals were from TK Maxx: the brand is Refresh. The sunglasses were in the sale at Sainsbury's last year, rings are charity shopped and the pendant I bought when I was in New Zealand.

I'm gonna change gear a bit now as I'm brewing a bit of a rant. It's a #instarant in fact. For those of you on instagram I want to ask this question - "Since when did instagram become a dating site?" Blogging and instagram have proved to be a great way for me to build new friendships over the past couple of years. I follow all sorts of interests from yoga and fitness, healthy eating, fashion, sewing, swimming, holidays, all things Cornish, all things Scottish and generally anything interesting that takes my fancy. But recently I've been getting message requests from men of all ages and frankly I find it a bit of an intrusion. "Hello beautiful, how's your day?" may be an acceptable introduction if I were touting my wares on Match.com, but here I am posting fashion shots for the over 50's or pictures of the sunset from my garden. I deliberately include my marital status in my instagram profile in the hope of deterring this kind of encounter. What kind of guy would hassle a married woman? 

Just the other day I noticed that an instafriend changed her setting to private explaining that she's fed up getting inappropriate messages from men. She's baffled as to how her posts on sewing and food can be construed as encouragement for these stalkers. I decline and block these message requests as she too has in the past, but I'm annoyed to think that we are the ones who have to change our instagram lives to avoid this kind of attention. 

I can only imagine that these men are weirdos, a conclusion that I draw from the fact that they don't avail themselves of the convention dating routes. Why chase a married woman who lives on the other side of the world when you could pop into your local bar and chat to a single woman who has joined up for a bit of speed dating? Why indeed. Maybe because the man in question doesn't really want a relationship. Maybe he gets his kicks from chasing the unobtainable. Maybe he's not got the social skills to interact under normal circumstances? Maybe he's got two heads and six fingers and toes? Goodness knows! It's a blooming mystery to me.
Anna x

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10 comments

  1. I love these pants so much! Another great outfit!

    And I hear you on the inappropriate Instagram messages. I've also been getting quite a few of them (they must be targeting certain hashtags?). It's really annoying. I've also been blocking all the messengers, and it has slowed down a bit (knock on wood!).

    Have a wonderful weekend, Anna!

    Andrea
    Andrea’s Wellness Notes

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    1. Thanks Andrea! This seemed like a bit of a plain offering when I assembled it on the bed that morning, but when I put it on I was really surprised how much I loved it.

      My rant has done the job - I've got it out of my system and also have learned how widespread this problem is helps too.

      Anna x

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  2. Lovely outfit, Anna! But are you getting burned out on these pants yet? I find if I wear something too many times, I just get tired of it.

    I don't Instagram, but after all these years, I still get weird emails from men about my feet (why???).

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    1. These trousers still give me a thrill when I sashay about in them, so as long as that happens I'll be styling them up.

      Are we talking feet Sheila or is it more a shoe fetish thing...?

      Anna x

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  3. I had to block one freak on IG.

    This is another reason I'm not on Facebook as much now. The number of men contacting me there was overwhelming. Now I don't post often on my personal account and try to keep it all for my business fan page.

    I think these are men that just want you to send dirty pics. They have no intention of meeting you.

    With all the dating apps out there you'd think they could figure those out.

    bisous
    Suzanne

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    1. My weirdest encounter on Facebook so far was a woman who sent me a friend request (which I niavely accepted) and then a few days later she sent me an explicit photo of some private parts that definitely weren't female! Steep learning curve for me. I'm now deleting "friends of friends" as it's cleary inviting trouble.

      Hey ho, we live and learn!

      Anna x

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  4. This outfit points out the impact of subtle color, craftily (is that a word?) applied. That little spot of Latin on your shirt has got me craving a translation! This outfit is nice! Turquoise is such a pretty accent color!
    Strange men with undefined intent are a 10 on the creepy, disgusting and scary scale. DELETE QUICKLY AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT GOOD MOMENT.

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    1. This top is indeed subtle for me in both colour and cut, but it's endearing none the less. Let me know if you can fathom out a translation. If I ever have a spare moment (maybe around October) I'll look it up.

      Yes, it's the creepy factor that I don't like. The rant has helped me to get it out of my system though and also to hear how very common it is also feels less threatening.

      Anna x

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  5. Hi Anna, I read your Instagram post on this subject (sleezie men) and have read the longer version here. Hoping that this has stopped now that you have blocked them. When I first opened my IG account I got a few from women, very suss because they had posted nothing and followed hundreds or thousands and I think were porn. I blocked them straight away and haven't had any problems since. I absolutely hear you that we should not be the ones who have to make big changes and have to spend additional time doing the extra yards to delete these scum bags. xx

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    1. Thank you for joining in with this conversation. I've taken all the right steps to rid myself of the suspects and things to seem to have settled down. I just find the whole thing very strange, if not somewhat annoying, but I suppose that's the price we have to pay for stepping into the line of fire some might say.

      Anna x

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