On the Subject of Fashion

 To me, fashion is a deeply personal subject.  I believe that fashion is in the eye of the beholder.  And like most bloggers, I would go so far as to say that often personal fashion is a direct expression of someone's personality.  (Or at least the personality they want people to perceive!)  As a child, I was pretty fashionable.  Mostly because my mom was in charge of my clothes, so everything I had was very cute and appropriate for a kid.  Once I hit my tweens, though, and she didn't have any more say in my clothing choices, it all started to fall apart.  This is where I confess my sad, sad lack of fashion skills between the ages of ...say, 10 and 17.  Oh, I thought I was fashionable.  I thought I was the coolest looking girl out there.  And I know, it should work out that if you think you're cool, you are.  But no.  I wasn't even a hot mess.  I was more of a tepid mess.  The eyes that beheld me were often pretty disgusted.  There were shirts I clung to, that I cringe at the thought of, my hair that went poorly brushed most mornings, the fact that most of my clothes I picked out were too big, until the latter half of high school when the tops at least went the other direction.  To be fair, I don't think most kids have a great sense of fashion.  I think it's something we have to grow into to, because our fashion is as personal, and most people don't have any clue who they really are until after puberty.   I certainly don't think it helped that I went through puberty early, and was wearing an actual bra, not a training bra, in the fourth grade.  And then in high school, puberty smacked me around again as I went up multiple cup sizes, and through a lot of new bras.  I had just started to develop a vaguely artistic, slightly hippie, occasionally dangerous looking style of my own when I went off to college.  And then.  I went to a private university, where anorexia and bulimia ruled the women's dorms, with preppy style close behind.  I stayed my true size (a curvy hourglass), but the preppy style slowly crept in over the next four years.  It stayed there in the edges while I moved to Kansas and went to graduate school, working full-time.  Then I moved back to Virginia, and as I kept applying for jobs and not getting them, I gained some weight.  I finally got a job, and as I went through all my clothes to find stuff that fit, I was dismayed at what I saw.  This wasn't me!  I wasn't really this boring, oxford shirt-wearing, plain black pants sort of person!  Last year, my sister showed me some fashion blogs online, I got interested in this concept of finding my own personal style, and maybe even making a outfit blog of my own.  I rummaged through my closet, and set huge piles of stuff on the spare bed.  It turned out that, despite my lifelong snarking about "girly girls", I prefer wearing skirts to pants or jeans.  It just looks better on my figure, and feels more comfortable.  I still like those hippie shirts like I did in high school, but I also love embellished t-shits made of slub cotton, and buttonless cardigans.  I wear flats, not heels, but that doesn't mean they aren't adorable.  I wear leggings under most skirts and under dresses, and I have a deep love of arm warmers and leg warmers.  So now, my sense of fashion has regrown to the point where I like what I wear and I have written proof that others do too!