Well, well, well. Fashionnnnn… Is this post gonna be vain and selfish, or insightful with lots to learn? I hope it’s the latter, but maybe a little of the former. Enjoy as I indulge in my moment, experience, and journey with fashion.
I’ve never considered myself to be fashionable person. Rather, I always considered myself to have “dad” fashion – I wore what was most comfortable and practical, leaned into the personality that dad’s have in “lack of style”, and love spouting dad humor, “lame” jokes, and lots and lots of puns.
Additionally, as someone always trying to min-max life, fashion felt like an unnecessary road block to my goals. It felt like a vain activity. And honestly, I was too lazy to work on it.
Over the past couple months though, I’ve been going through a lot of life changes, and been learning a lot about fashion.
With getting laid off, becoming single, running a business, and trying to make a career switch, I’ve been trying to find ways to up my game in life. not only to find some stability and control, but as someone always obsessed with productivity and improvement, fashion felt like a challenge I could focus on. I hoped to be able to it would help me with gaining confidence, making good impressions with my business, finding a job, and moving on from my previous relationship.
It should be easy right? Just buy outfits that look good, wear those said “more fashionable” clothes, and I would become “more fashionable”.
But I could not be more wrong.
I remember for two weekends, I put in a little more effort than usual in how I dressed for church. I went to Costco (what value I thought) and picked out some clothes I believed paired really well.
“A button up and matching shorts. Two similar shades of green for different occasions. These two different styles must look nice!” I thought.
Putting on my outfit in the morning, I felt so proud that I took that “first step” towards being fashionable.
But, when I entered church the first time, I was shocked. Rather than people commenting that my outfit was nice, someone pulled me aside, and told me I looked like a crocodile hunter.
“Crikey mate!” one of my friends chorteled.
My girlfriend then and some other friends mentioned I looked like a zookeeper. I and I had a friend break down laughing at my outfit, saying I looked ridiculous.
I was horrified.
But I was a little insane, and thought, “Maybe if they saw my second outfit, they’d see that I’m trying”.
And so, with a little more hesitation, I on the second second Sunday, I put on my second outfit, hoping that I would get a different reaction.
And I did.
I was complimented that I looked like a park ranger!
What in the world!
I was embarrassed. I “tried so hard” and fought my laziness to try to put myself together. Woke up a littler early to “spice” things up. But my attempt to become “more fashionable” was ridiculed like a circus act.
I felt so lost.
That was when I knew I had no “fashion sense”.
I knew I needed to get more educated. Learn more on the nuance of fashion. Or else next thing I’d know, I’d be signing up for the next act at P. T. Barnum’s show.
So I jumped into reading & watching content on fashion.
And I was flooded.
With.
Information.
There were so many topics covering:
- basics
- the perfect white tee
- good shoes to buy
- Uniqlo
- balance and contradiction
- knowing your fit, and buying for your fit
- Japanese denim
- more Uniqlo
- thrifting
- pick-ups from thrifting
- opinions on thrifting
- even more Uniqlo!
- and the list goes on
- and on
- and on!
I learned that the reason my fashion and style had no form was because my wardrobe was just an amalgamation of random clothes collected over the years. There were no fundamental building blocks that could form any cohesive outfit. No basics.
Zero, zip, zilch, NADA.
There are layers of intentionality for why certain clothes were worn for certain circumstances.
Having neutral color clothes and shoes meant they could pair well with other pieces of clothing. Certain pieces of clothing are more statement pieces to layer on top of basics. And there are different ways to align or clash clothes for different styles.
Now I understood why people went shopping. When else would you have the opportunity to try on so many clothes without having to own any? You could reimagine any style, personality, or identity you wanted!
Since starting my fashion journey, I’ve felt a lot more respect and admiration for friends in my life who I recognize are fashionable. I felt my eyes were opened for what it took to be more fashionable.
I realized that ultimately, fashion is just finding a better way of expressing yourself through what you wear, both form and function.
I’m still very early on in my journey, but there’s still so much to explore with fashion. You can follow more on it @lifecreedo