oh, you can dress? that’s hot.
BLOG 9: 31/07/2024
Getting dressed in the morning means something different for everyone.
For some, it’s an artistic exercise; an opportunity to creatively express yourself through clothing choices. For others it’s a practical exercise to ensure maximum comfort and temperature control throughout the day. For a few, it’s a mindless and obligatory act to avoid public indecency.
How we want to present ourselves changes throughout our life. As I’ve got older, I’ve realised that I feel less influenced by trends. I am more focused on buying and wearing items of clothing that represent me, rather than what is popular or ‘in fashion’. Growing up in an all-girls school environment, trends and wearing what everyone else was wearing, was a necessary step to staying relevant… or at least that’s what it felt like.
Throughout my teenage years, it felt like there was a uniform. If you were going to hang out with friends, you put on your Venroy mini skirt or One teaspoon shorts with a tank top and Birkenstocks. That’s what was cool, and that’s how you were accepted. How we presented ourselves, deemed us ‘cool’ and ‘in fashion’, or not. This simple outfit concoction looked great… if you were a size 6 or 8. In hindsight, this outfit trend made you hyperaware of your body and everyone else’s. The ‘fashion trend’ merged into a ‘body type trend’. When you play into clothing trends, comparison is inevitable; comparing yourself to the models who start these trends or comparing your body with others who engage in the trend. Dressing how you think you need to dress, is a dangerous trap to fall into. Being fixated on ‘what men like’, or ‘what the cool kids wear’ or ‘what girls think is hot’, leads to wearing clothing you aren’t totally comfortable in. Ultimately affecting overall confidence and creating a loss of identity.
Experimenting with fashion is a necessary step to figuring out your style, but this experimental stage is AWKWARD. An example that sticks out to me, is when one of my friends decided he wanted to start wearing loose fitting jeans, instead of skinny jeans. Sound like a very positive step in the world of pants… oh no. Instead of buying ‘straight’ jeans, he bought his same style of skinny jeans, 4 sizes too big. It was a fashion crisis. I’ll admit that it is tricky to find perfect pants but buying skinny jeans 4 sizes too big and keeping them up with a very tight belt, is not the solution. After copping some slander and shopping advice from his mates, this friend has (thankfully) left his awkward skinny jeans phase in his style past. He now wears lovely jeans that fit him how jeans should fit.
I could write a whole blog post on pants, I love pants. It takes a lot of experimenting to find pants that really work for you, and once you do, pants are the best! My best tip for finding perfect pants is trying on a million styles and find your correct size. Once you stop defining your wardrobe by the size you ‘should be’, and start wearing clothes that actually fit you, not only will you be more comfortable, but you will look better in your clothes. Realising that you are not defined by one size, is when the fashion world opens up. No one person is a size XS or XL in every garment. Certain styles and brands of clothes fit differently, so try on lots of different sizes and buy the one you feel most comfortable in.
Buying the right size and clothes that you really love, creates an image you wish to present to the world – this is our true style. There comes a time in everyone’s life where they stop letting Mum craft their wardrobe and start thinking about fashion as an avenue of self-expression. Our wardrobe is like a story book of our life, it is a visual representation of our personality. Different garments from different chapters remind us that we are becoming more refined versions of ourselves; more free thinking and more in control of who we are and who we want to continue to become.
Wardrobes mirror our lived experience and the people who have touched our lives. It’s beautiful, really, how your style can tell stories. When I return home, my family always has something to say about how my style has evolved and become more ‘Melbourne’. When I experienced my first winter in Melbourne, I realised how my wardrobe reflected my Brisbane roots (leaving me VERY cold). When we wear garments passed down from relatives, their style legacy lives on. I love how finding your personal style can craft a more authentic version of yourself. Being more comfortable externally, makes you more comfortable internally. Being confident in your style shifts your focus from external validation to personal validation, this is when personal growth occurs.
Don’t be afraid to wear something a bit wacky, every fashion regret allows us to edge closer to finding our unique style. Happy shopping and happy styling! I wish for you all to be brave and experiment, as Katy Perry once said, ‘Be yourself, everyone else is taken’. That’s all.
Lots of love,
Char xox