The more I think about it, the more I think painting is a lot like getting all dressed up to go out. Think about the hours spent agonising over the smallest detail, the perfect tone. The time spent contemplating the slightest variation in shade, the strength of contrast, the highlights, the lowlights. Hours, days, weeks even, spent mixing glazes and powders, polishing and buffing, pulling, teasing, adjusting. Then if someone complements the final piece, you can shrug and say, ‘Oh this old thing? Just something I threw together’.

Clothes and make-up are, as it were, your raw materials.

So is, then, going clothes and make-up shopping, the same as going shopping for art supplies; a roll of canvas here, a jar of varnish there. Come to think of it, it might be like DIY shopping too; think emulsion pollyfilla and primer and you’ve got the idea.

Anyway, if you’re looking for some original ‘raw materials’, there’s a perfect shop on Melita St in Valletta called Blush & Panic. It’s a gem of a shop; a breath of fresh air in these stuffy streets. It’s pink, funky, classy and just plain cool.

The clothes are cool, the lingerie’s cool, the glasses are cool, the books are cool, the jewellery’s cool, even the shop front is cool; what more can I say; funky, funky, funky.

The lovely and daring Samantha Gatt tells me that she opened the shop through a true love of fashion and because of a lack of anything like this anywhere in Malta. She stocks vintage clothes which she handpicks herself, as well as new, vintage-inspired pieces.

To be honest, some of the clothes are a bit too, well, recent for me. They’re not so much vintage, as just second-hand clothes in very good condition that people wore in the eighties. Then I realise that this just means I’m old. Take no notice of me: the clothes are seriously cool. The fashion pessimist in me thinks that maybe, with that particular type of cool, there’s a fine line between a vintage chic groovy kind of a look and a polyester granny kind of a look. You have to be pretty darn confident (read young and leggy) to pull it off, because it could go either way; one wrong brushstroke and it could all go seriously awol. The vintage-inspired range is gorgeous though, it’s refined and feminine and oozing with elegance.

The jewellery is to die for. I briefly consider grabbing a handful & legging it, but I think Malta’s not a big place and Samantha would probably track me down soon enough. Some is vintage-inspired and features large cameo brooches and pearl and turquoise pieces. My absolute favourite is a range from La Nereides, their jewellery is playful and elegant all at the same time, with large gemstones and tiny, intricate enamel inserts. This is definitely what hubby is getting me for Christmas, whether he knows it yet or not.

Samantha also stocks reprints of vintage books, some more unusual art and photography books, vintage glasses, some pretty ‘intimates’, as well as vintage leather handbags, shoes and other accessories.

Blush & Panic’s interior is a bit like a painting itself; bare stone Naples Yellow against bold pink and white stripes and luxurious fabrics. But if your body is a blank canvas, it’s got all the paint you’ll ever need to dress it up in style.