I think that fashion is something that contains millions of sub-topics. It's not just about clothes or money or runways and parties. Those are a few of the sub-topics. Fashion for me has a lot to do with emotion. How many of you dress based on your mood? I certainly do. Weather and daily events are taken into consideration as well but I'd say that most days it's what I'm feeling like that predicts my outfit. Some days, my emotions control the outfit. Others, my outfit controls my emotions. Clothes make me feel different emotions. The more I like my outfit, the more confident I tend to feel. Certain colours, textures and styles make me feel a certain way. I love the power that clothes have to not only transform the way I look but the way I feel. For example, bright colours and sequins lift my mood and make me feel cheery and bright.
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| Summer 2011? Vintage dress from Value Village, Aldo shoes. |
The same can be said about confidence. Your confidence can dictate how you dress and how you dress will influence your confidence. It's not always about what you're wearing but how the clothes make you feel. I don't like the so-called guidebook or 'rules' of style. For lack of a better cliche, rules are meant to be broken. I dress for myself, in expressing my creativity and love for fashion. I try to encourage people I meet to just wear what they want, regardless of what people may think. If you like how you look in something, or how it makes you feel, then WEAR it. I agree that certain styles will flatter different body shapes but fashion for me isn't always about flattering my shape but being creative and wearing whatever I want. And what is creative to me may not be creative to others. Personal style is exactly that: it's personal. If wearing grey is a jump from black for a person, then so be it. If I feel like wearing a fur vest, turban, and glittery shoes, I will without hesitation.
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| Sequin jacket and shoes from Value Village. |
Whenever I'm wearing something that's eccentric and starts a conversation, I constantly hear the other person saying a variation of "I could never pull that off". I always say "YES YOU CAN!". I don't like the idea of "pulling it off". It's as easy as putting it on and being fearless. When I put on something strangely cool or different, it gives me this weird rush of confidence and I feel fearless. I also don't understand the point in saving things for special occasions or events when you can live everyday like it's a special day!
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| Vintage beaded dress. |
Confidence is so important to me and only recently did I realize how important. It literally affects almost everything in daily life from how you interact with people and make decisions to how you walk and the way you speak. Confidence to me is feeling comfortable expressing myself without the fear of what people will think or say. I'm used to receiving just about every outfit comment possible and all of them, good or bad, make me happy for some reason. Some comments even make me burst into laughter. I was once called a gorilla for wearing a black fur vest and a martini waiter for wearing a bow tie (funny, no?).
I think what holds some people back from dressing how they want is the fear of opening the possibility of receiving comments. However, if you feel truly confident in what you're wearing, what people think or say won't matter. And if you don't feel confident but you do like what you're wearing, then fake the confidence. Shift your inner voice and talk to yourself. Tell yourself you're beautiful and stylish, and creative and unique. Act confident. What I'm trying to say is just dress how you want and the confidence will eventually come. It takes time and I can say there are days when I'm not confident, but that's when my clothes step in.
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| My heaven: the thrift store. |
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