Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A Reflection on Personal Style


I want to take this week to talk about personal style and my relationship with it.  Not only with my own
personal style, but with my understanding and relationship to it as a concept.

Up until a few years ago I had never heard of the term "personal style", and I was unaware of the existence of personal style blogs.  I felt that even though I had definite tastes as far as clothing, I was not "up on fashion" or even aware of what was "trendy" or "in season".    I assumed that since my interests regarding fashion weren't in sync with what was fashionable at large, my tastes must not be valid or even relevant.


A few years back a I had a friend over for dinner at my apartment in college and she told me to check out this fashion blogger called The Clothes Horse because she thought that I would appreciate her style.  I went online to her blog and had a look see.  What cute clothes!  What adorable outfits!  These outfits are totally my style!  I was blown away.   But most importantly, I could tell she had her own style.   She didn't necessarily follow what was "hot right now" or completely dump her closet for being more than a season old.  She was a real person and she showed it just like it was — what she found interesting and wore day to day.


I remember always having an opinion about what I wore.  Whether it was my disgust for the dreaded "stretch pants" as a child (hello precursor to the biggest fad of all: leggings), or my aversion to jeans for the first 18 years of life, I was very picky about clothes.  I suppose that all of these choices were a part of my personal style growing up, without my ever having stopped to ponder about it.



I started paying a little more attention when I hit college.  I was a photography major, and in the early years I chose to photograph portraits of people.  As I continued, my interests became more involved.  At a certain point — around the time I made my first hat — I started taking the fashion styling under more consideration.   The clothes had to fit the hats some how; they needed to be a part of this thing that I had created to be perfectly my own style. 

As the styling of outfits increased, so did the styling of sets, characters, and fantasy worlds.  This was definitely a turning point in the story of my personal style.  It was very fussy, very narrow, and very exact.  Ultimately is was inexplicably my own personal style.  




Since then, its been almost a year.  Within that time I started this blog, graduated college, started a small business and started working in fashion merchandising.  Needless to say a lot of major shifts have occurred in my life.  As a result I've noticed that my style choices are shifting as well.  I've become a little less narrow in my clothing choices, and have opened up my mind to a lot of different styles that I would have previously dismissed completely.  I feel like my journey into personal style self awareness is just beginning, and I am excited to see where it goes. 

- The Lovely Red Fox







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