Is this about the pretty privilege thread, as I ignored that as those mostly descend into posters claiming they're ridiculously beautiful and all women are mean to them and ugly people don't know how good they have it...
I think beauty is much like other things in life like money, intelligence, etc. It has a steep climbing curve at the start where having more of it rapidly improves your quality of life and potential happiness but there's a place where it plateaus and it adds little more and then there's a rare group where it takes a nosedive and it hinders more than anything but IME of extremely beautiful people who struggle to be recognised as anything else tend not to be the people as described above. They're more the I prefer the company of animals over humans type which incidentally the ones who didn't win the genetic lottery also tend to be. It's that shoehorn effect.
I think we underestimate how quickly that plateau is reached, generally, having some of it is often more beneficial than people realise and it's also why the beauty industry exists, they can create the suggestion of some of it with promises of more. I also think we very much underestimate how much we have of it, I would never describe Elle as plain of face at all, nor would I describe myself as particularly attractive (just the conventional sort) but random strangers comment on it regardless and I assume they just want something from me, it's not even tied to lack of confidence I just assume they have low standards and casting a wide net.
Beauty can very much be a soft power, so can a hot body but the latter depreciates much quicker, but neither is an appreciated power in women so I feel we all subconsciously downgrade ourselves because owning it isn't very beneficial, mostly. I'm not blind to that I have some of it either, and I'm vain and not eager to let go of any of it. I do get better treatment sometimes but it's not always clear where that's coming from, there's always multiple factors.
I don't know what the posting of pictures=vanity is about. I'm sure it is a seeking of external validation for some and could be an involuntary compulsive thing so I don't automatically assume the worst of their character. For me personally, I'm cautious about data and that includes my face, I don't want it to be lifted and used in some bot army wielded by oppressive regimes or similar, or catfishing, etc. (or worse someone using it for a how old am I thread on MN 😱) but that's the entire internet and social media for me, I can get a bit tinfoil hat about it. I think on here people take the whole anonymous forum thing very seriously so stereotypical behaviour of other social media platforms can feel at odds with that?
Agree with you Flo about the style and confidence relationship, it's a balancing act, getting older and wiser helps.
I usually add a strip of self fabric at the pocket edges to avoid the issue you had. Could you handsew it in, maybe?
I love that Céline bag too Elle, I'm just too short for it to work proportionally. I did always like a very oversized related version (attached) which probably would work better for me as it's ridiculously oversized enough to seem intentional. I think it was called twisted XL or something. It didn't have a long run (think it was a men's bag) and most secondhand versions I find are a bit too beaten up and scuffed at the corners.
Weather has been cloudy so not great for pictures but it's sunny today, I'll try and get pictures today, but the Dries trousers also need an iron so it may not happen.