Who Is Rowan?

I think it’s only important I delve into a little bit about me. Who I am, where I come from and what I do. I mean I can’t expect you to read this blog if you’ve no idea who the man behind the keyboard is. So it’s time to get personal.

Those of you who don’t know me, hi, I’m Rowan. I’m 25 and holding onto youth as much as I can. I was born in Blackburn, England, and have lived in Preston for most of my years. I had a three-year period living in Manchester, something I’ll go into at a later date, but for the past 18 months I’ve been living back at home with my one true love, my mum – THE most inspirational woman I have ever met!

I have always been a confident person, gregarious most would say. I came out as Gay; yes I’m gay if you didn’t already notice, at the young age of 14 years old. It was the summer between year 9 and year 10 in high school. I’d had a stint of girlfriends which were just so, girls that were friends. I used to find it hard to hold a girls hand let alone commit to them. I’d spent year 9 crushing on a certain boy in year 11 (I won’t mention any names in case for some crazy reason he reads this) and I wasn’t really sure what was going on within myself. Flash-forward to one summers evening, I was having a heart to heart with my best friend at the time, Megan, over MSN (those were the days). And she told me one thing, which will stay with me forever, “Rowan, it’s OK if you’re gay”. From that point, like an old fashioned clock, all the cogs started to fit together in my mind and that was it. I was Rowan, and I was gay!

Not that I would ever let that define me, however, I do use it to my advantage. And I’m exceptionally proud of who I am and who I’ve become. Which is why I feel so comfortable sharing my story with the world. I’ve always been quite lucky that I haven’t really ever been bullied, to the extreme. Don’t get me wrong, I walk down the street and get at least a funny look every day but that may be to do with my bright white hair or fabulous dress sense. But yes, I’ve been lucky, that this world has allowed me to truly explore who I am and really find myself, as a big part of it.

My love for Fashion really started with Project Runway, a show to this day I will always love and thankfully reruns are appearing on Netflix. I loved the craftsmanship that went into a single piece of clothing and the creativity of those genius designers such as Alexander McQueen, Vera Wang and Olivier Rousteing of Balmain. I remember through high school I had my favourite cut outs from Vogue all over one wall of my bedroom (pictures below, 2008 – what was I thinking?!), then a few years later I decided to write my favourite designers names all over my bedroom wall in black chalk (below right 2010 – WHY?) – luckily for Sara (mum) she was due to decorate a few weeks later.

With all this love, I started working in a jewellery store as a Saturday boy from age 16 and then progressed through to being the Assistant Manager of Pandora Southport at the age of 19 – something I’m still very proud of to this day. After a few great years with Pandora, I moved to Selfridges were I worked as Service Manager for Menswear. I was in my element. I used to go shopping in Selfridges and walk around and say to myself “If I get to work here, my life will be complete”. After a few years working hard and loving every minute, retail got tough and I decided on a huge change. I moved home, there were many other factors which made the decision so easy, and stepped away from the high pressures. In this year period, I took care of me, and those close to me, and it was the best thing I had ever done because now I am able to sit here and write about my life, with pride.

You currently find me working as Business Development Manager for an advertising agency, but don’t worry; the clients I am working with and want to get on board are all from this fabulous world of fashion, so I still get to keep that piece of me. Through this time of focussing on me, as mentioned in my first post, I truly discovered my style, and what works best for me, and others. I have mastered the art of piecing things together with not a lot of money but still making sure I look on point every single day. There isn’t a day I don’t consciously think about how I look and what I’m wearing, even if just popping out to buy wine (I would say milk as the phrase goes, but come on, let’s be real!). With this, I have discovered my dream and hope, some day, I can become a stylist or at least share my passion with the world.

Finally, I would like to say, thank you for taking the time to read my posts. I have received so much love from everyone who has read it so far – and I can’t wait to write more. But I must sign off now as I have some pampering to do before heading to Manchester tonight ready for The Big Pride Weekend! Next weeks post will be my favourite looks from the weekend, which I can’t wait to show you. Have a great bank holiday and stay safe!

Ps: My look and fashion has definitely improved, hasn’t it? Haha!

RXRX