Happy Friday everyone, hope your holidays were as warm and cozy as my new Shea butter socks 🙂
My $7 Awakening
This whole article began several weeks ago whilst meandering the floors of my local mall. Do you ever come across a piece and see 15 different outfits? I decided to take a gander at Dillard’s ever growing mammoth of sale jewelry. (side note- I would argue Dillard’s has THE single best unique mid level jewelry than anywhere else.) While pillaging through the hoards of jewelry I came across the earrings I’d been looking for all my life. Disclaimer: I don’t wear a lot of patterns- though I wish I did. But I do love to create interest in other ways in my style choices. I love a good romantic floral pattern and these statement, Dog wood flower, gold earrings were exactly what I needed to subtly create a dramatic look.
To me they were the perfect combination of statement, eclectic, vintage style I had been looking to find for a long time! They reminded me of jewelry I had read about in a book somewhere? or seen in an old movie…
I am continually looking to find fun statement pieces to add to my otherwise pattern-less, turtleneck sweater, jean wardrobe. The pièce de résistance was the low low price of $40 down to $7! Merry Christmas to me! I wore them to four different Holiday parties and got comments (I’d like to say they were compliments) ranging from “they look like they belong in grandmas jewelry case” to “those are so festive.” The moral of the story is that I felt they were a reflection of me- I am an old spirit, and simplicity is something I value (most of the time), but adding a hint of sparkle to any outfit is a win in my book! All in all, I bought what I loved and what I saw was an opportunity to share who I am with others. Are they stylish?- I don’t know, maybe not in the mainstream way. Were they affordable?- yeah! Do they make me happy and inspired? most definitely. I bought them because I fell in love with them which can’t be said about a lot of the items in my closet…which brings me to my main point.
I’ve started to look deeper into the idea of using my wardrobe as a way to reflect who I am as a person. If fashion is a first impression then I want it to be a true reflection of me! We often hear that one has to dress for the job one wants to get, but why do we never think about what we wear on the weekends as equally important? The problem with clothing is that its often others that influence our style (trends, insecurities, those damned fashion bloggers) rather than our own interests and tastes.
I’ve been going back and forth about the idea of the importance of fashion and the idea of inspiration especially when it comes to what we put on our bodies every single day (hopefully!). When I see someone wear something that completely reflects who I think they are it makes me giddy and I love to see people’s style evolve over time. Inspiration comes in many forms and for many people comes from many areas of life. Experience, age, birth order, country of origin, ethnicity- these are all factors that influence our style and more often or not have impact on our personalities as well!
Though often viewed as superficial, fashion is an external application of what we feel very deeply inside about ourselves and the world around us. Miuccia Prada described fashion as “the first step out of poverty. You have nothing and then you put something on. It is one of the first things you do to elevate yourself. … Why are people scandalized by spending money on clothes? Everybody is so passionate about this — there’s a resistance to fashion — an idea that to love fashion is to be stupid. Clothes are very intimate. When you get dressed, you are making public your idea about yourself, and I think that embarrasses people.” What I would argue not only financial poverty, but also emotional poverty.
“Examine All Things…”
I think the true importance of fashion is as much about creating jobs as it is creating an avenue for people to consider things more deeply about themselves and the world. One of my favorite sayings is “examine all things ” which (if we are being honest) rarely happens in our POST NOW society. Like all areas of life, fashion can be what you make it – it can be about money, proving your status, or simply so you don’t walk around naked everyday. I argue that when we take the conversation of fashion seriously we get more out of life- we take the vanity out of it and we get the true joy of self expression. We open a window to view the world around us and give people a differing perspective than they might have had before. I think when we make fashion less about what we want others to think about us, and more about what we want people to know about who we are we take a step further towards more confidence in our style choices. Our concern for needing to stay up with trends and always have the newest and brightest is not fashion. It’s insecurity.
My final thoughts:
Buy only what you love, rethink what you own, and challenge yourself to love fashion for what it says about you and the world … not just for a designers name.
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