Organic Cotton, Organic Conversations: Perimenopause and Wearing How You Feel

I've started this blog four times.

Every version was neater than this one. More polished. More "on brand". And every version left out the bit that actually matters. So here it is.

I'm perimenopausal... I think, who knows!!!

World Menopause Day is on Sunday 18th October, and I don't want to keep that sentence to myself any more. Not because I've got it all figured out (I really haven't), but because this whole brand is built on wearing how you feel. I can't ask you to do that if I'm hiding how I feel.

Why a clothing brand is talking about perimenopause

When I started Complicated Co., the idea was simple: clothes that let you wear how you feel. Not how you think you should feel. Not how you'd like people to think you feel. How you actually feel, on the good days and the complicated ones.

I didn't realise then how personal that would become. Perimenopause affects so many women, plenty of them in our community, and it still gets whispered about like it's something to be embarrassed about. I don't want this brand to whisper. So I'm talking about it.

My perimenopause story: what it actually looks like

It didn't arrive with a big announcement. It crept in.

It started with sleep. 3am, wide awake, my mind racing through orders to pack, emails to answer and designs I hadn't finished. Then dragging myself through the next day on coffee and sheer stubbornness. I told myself it was just a busy season. Everyone's tired. You get on with it.

Then it was the words. I'd be chatting to someone at an event, mid-sentence, and the word I needed would just go. I'd laugh it off. Inside, I was mortified. I started rehearsing what I'd say before events, which I'd never needed to do in my life.

Then the confidence. I'd be choosing between two colours, I'd normally pick in seconds, and I'd stand there doubting both. Doubting myself. Unable to explain why, even to me. Decisions that used to excite me started to feel heavy.

The hardest part wasn't any one of those things. It was not recognising myself. I built Complicated Co. around being honest about how you feel, and I was avoiding the most honest conversation of all: the one with myself.

What perimenopause means when you're running a small business

When you're running a small business, you can't call in sick from your own brand. The orders still need packing on a bad day. The event still needs setting up, whether you slept or not.

So I've had to learn to work with my body, not against it. The designing and the big decisions happen in the mornings now, when my head is clearest. Packing, admin and emails wait for the afternoons, when the fog rolls in. I write everything down, because my memory isn't the filing cabinet it used to be. And I've stopped apologising for needing space. Rest isn't a reward for finishing everything. It's part of how this brand gets made.

Why I choose organic cotton for our tees

Organic cotton is grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers. It's slower. It's more natural. Nobody forces it.

When I was choosing what to make our tees from, that mattered to me. It matters even more now. I don't want to build a brand on shortcuts, and I don't want to chase trends just to keep up. I'd rather grow slowly and honestly, and make things you'll keep wearing for years. That's what slow fashion means to me.

Comfortable clothing when your body is changing

I'll be honest: I never used to think much about how my clothes felt. Now I think about it every morning.

When your body is changing, comfort stops being a nice extra. Some mornings I need something soft and relaxed that doesn't ask anything of me, and that's the tee I reach for. Our relaxed fit tees sit loosely and easily, in sizes XS to 4XL, in men's and women's. Organic cotton, a natural fibre that lots of people find soft and comfortable to wear all day. 

And some days I need a word on my chest to say what I can't. That's what wearing how you feel really is. It's not about hiding the complicated days. It's about getting dressed for them.

The Digital Detox edit: space to switch off

Some days you don't need to push through. You need to switch off.

That's exactly why the digital detox edit exists. The Offline cap and tees are about giving yourself permission to step away from the noise and reconnect with yourself. I didn't realise how much I needed that space until my body started insisting on it.

Organic content, not just organic cotton

Here's what I didn't expect: perimenopause has helped me understand my own brand better.

Wearing how you feel was always the idea. Now I live it. And it's made me want everything about Complicated Co. to be grown the same way as our cotton: honest, a bit messy, and rooted in real life rather than a marketing plan. That means showing you the good days and the hard ones. It means talking about things like perimenopause instead of pretending everything is polished.

That's what we make. It always was. I just understand it differently now.

If this is you

If any of this sounds familiar, please hear me: you're not imagining it, and you're not on your own. Talk to your GP. Talk to someone you trust. Write it down if saying it out loud feels like too much. And be gentler with yourself than you think you need to be. I'm still learning that one.

Shop how you feel here