The London Lassie explains why her conflicting interests can sometimes make her feel like a fish out of water…

‘It’s a Drum and Bass night, but, you get the people you get unfortunately’.

That’s what an on looking wannabe hipster said about me whilst stepping out of a cab onto cobbles and tripping outside my favourite Edinburgh nightclub – the ultra hip and underground, Cabaret Voltaire. My DJ friends were playing that night, I love drum and bass and I’m not an asshole. So why did the guy say this?

Because of the way I was dressed.

I arrived with my best friends, all dressed in their ‘I-don’t-care-how-I-look-because-I-look-awesome-and-effortless-all-the-time-even-though-I-secretly-have-put-a-lot-of-effort-in’ look – very fitting to Cabaret Voltaire with its clientele of messy haired indie Cindies. However, with me, I guess you can say I know just as much about Deadmau5 as I do Donatella Versace. I was wearing a simple, yet elegant white shift dress and 6 inch KGs (which I can still dance like a maniac in by the way). Did I care I was going to a grungy underground club? Hell no. That’s how I like to dress. People can surely deal with that?

My friends found this hilarious of course. They knew the guy was wrong. They know me. However, it bothered me that this ‘you get what you get guy’ couldn’t deal with it. It infuriated me that because I was dressed differently from the usual clientele I wasn’t allowed to like or even be in that club. With a nightclub that over the years has showcased some of the most individual talent; did he really expect all the punters to dress the same?

He may have thought I was the kind that listens to the Saturdays and cries over a broken nail (if only he’d had a closer look at my horrendously untidy talons). He didn’t know that I’m a loud mouth, I watch the history channel and I read National Geographic. He didn’t know that I would choose the Strokes over the Saturdays any day, and at the time I was working for The Skinny, a publication he probably read every month. I wonder if he thought differently when I stepped onto the stage, hugged my DJ friends, started downing copious amounts of cheap cider and danced the night away like a mad man on the dance floor…

First impressions can be deceiving and we are all guilty of making snap judgements. I guess society doesn’t believe my personality matches my dress sense, and FYI: I don’t plan on changing either of them for anybody.