Happy new year readers of FashionX blog!
If you are anything like me, hopefully this past holiday break was full of lots of sleep, being outdoors, yummy food, and a whole lot of absolutely nothing. OH! And thrifting!!!
I’ve recently moved rooms here on campus, and in the process of moving around my clothes, I made it my main priority to sort out the clothes I don’t wear to then bring home and either donate or sell. Believe it or not, I brought back nearly 40 pounds of unworn clothes!
Now, with all this (surprisingly still very small) space freed up in my closet, and my own personal rule of “you can only spend money on clothes if you’ve received money from selling clothes,” I went around San Diego with my multiple cardboard boxes and trashbags and patiently waited as different vintage and thrift stores went through my old clothes–the clothes that weren’t selected, I donated to GoodWill.
Thus, I had a few extra bucks to spend on some new wardrobe essentials! I hit up all my favorite vintage and thrift stores, with the intention of buying long-lasting, unique pieces of clothing that could be layered, worn in multiple seasons, could be the center point of an outfit, or a staple in my closet. You might be thinking… that’s a lot of requirements for going thrifting. And yes. It is. But if you’ve been around long enough on the blog you know that I’ve been thrifting since I was a wee little girl of around 14 or 15 years old. And thus, I’ve gone through MANY phases of buying clothes, and found that if I keep these things in mind, it will allow me to buy only things that are of nice quality, will last a long time, and will avoid extra work in the future when it comes for another inevitable closet clean out.
But as I was going around thrifting, specifically the requirement of finding “unique items that could be the center of an outfit” would always stump me. I would spend countless hours shifting through racks and find the craziest prints, coolest proportions, or even just colors that I wouldn’t typically gravitate towards, but would find that I would second guess my ability to wear clothes such as these with the fear of it not fitting my “style.”
This got me questioning, “what even is my style?”
Like I said, I’ve always been an avid thrifter, and consider my closet to be a collection of things that represent who I am. However, what does this mean for my style? Would a shirt that has sequined ruffles and texture match the beat up, tan carhartt cargo pants? Or would a pair of green vintage Dockers suit an old, pink, lace cardigan?
These kinds of questions are what led me to put back items of clothing that weren’t conventional to my closet, but also in normal fashion lenses. But now that I’m back on campus, the jackets, pants, and sweaters I put down haunt me as I think about what to wear each morning.
Style to me is so subjective, that when I started to think about people I’ve seen on campus wearing notable, unique outfits, not a thought about whether or not this fits their “style” or personality (if I know them prior) crosses my mind. I also don’t blink twice when I see someone who I know has a great sense of fashion, and they flip flop between athletic wear, couture, street wear, and lounge wear. As someone who likes to put on an outfit every day, sometimes I feel this subconscious pressure to make every outfit stand out, and to make every outfit a reflection of my “style.” But at the end of the day, style is just another outward manifestation of who you are!
Maybe today I’m feeling preppy, and others I’m feeling more street-wear, or coquette, or whatever blank-core is popular on social media. And that's okay! Because my style is who I am, how I feel, and what I am wearing.
With the privilege of being able to wake up in the morning to get dressed, why not take advantage of it? What kind of person do you want to be today? Sporty and ready to move? Cozy and ready to lounge? Dressed up and ready to impress? You choose.
So, I hope as you read this, you are inspired to–not only clean out your closet and donate your clothes–buy things that you may consider outlandish or bizarre, yet chic and cool at the same time. Challenge yourself to wear things that may seem “out of your style” but make you feel good at the same time! Because if YOU think that what you are wearing is good, then no one else can make you feel like you aren’t. Your style is yours!
Fashionably,
Chloe
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