So... Why are you doing this?

Here's a pretty O'Keefe
painting for you to looks at.

  

My mom made a comment the other day about how I'm "all of a sudden" becoming a fashionista. Which is false.
I have always been like this.

    I dressed up in heels in high school and got mocked to high heaven for it. So I choose not to dress up anymore. I wore jeans, sneakers a ponytail and a pull-on hoodie for most of high school. Even when I did dress up, i played it very safe. And I got really used to dressing like that, so much so that it followed me to college (which I swore I would never let happen).

 My sophomore year at Bg I ran into someone  I went to high school with and she said  "oh my gosh, you look exactly the same!" My response was "No I don't, I'm completely different".

   ....on the inside. Yes I had grown up. Yes I was in college. Yes I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt every single day. From then on I tried my hardest to not just wear the basic high school uniform and most people now know me as "the fashionable one". I get phone calls for advise on what color to wear and every helped an old roommate pick almost every single outfit she wore, including the one she wore for her first date with her now husband.

 My friend Shayna (who is adorable herself)  always tells me how cute I look, and then reminders herself aloud that she tells me that every time she sees me.  I work in retail and at my last job was part of the visual team, ya know the girl who gets to dress the mannequins. I loved that job :)


But a few months ago I really started to think about how fashion/ clothing can really impact your life. The clothes you wear express so much about who you are, what taste you have, your political viewpoints, a la hippies of republicans in blue suits (seriously flip on C-SPAN, they all wear blue suits, it's weird). Clothes can denote class and education level (professor vs "staff" professors vs students). Clothes can make you attractive or can repel a whole room. The outside of your body is as much a part of you as the inside of yourself and needs to be treated as such.

My fashion reflects the thoughts I have on the world. It should be clean and simple, it should have interesting little twists and just a hint of sparkle and charm. (The world really isn't clean and simple, but I wish it could be). My fashion reflects my country side in it's practicality and sense of purpose ( I wear duck boots when it snows and heels when I go to the club, flats for the 15 minute walk to class) and my feminist perspective, yes look at me, but see more, respect me and my decisions because they are well thought out and pulled together, much like my cardigan/jeans/boots ensemble well thought out and pulled together. No my look is not something to gawk at, it is simply part of who I am. The outer shell of a human being.  The clothes I choose serve a purpose and function, just like me. I serve a function and have a purpose.  I show what I wish to whom I wish.  You will not see my boobs just because you want to, it is my right to choose to let/make you see what I want you to look at.  I work hard to pull the eye of passersby up to my face, so they can look me in the eye, like an equal.  My clothes help me do that. They help you see a whole person and not just a cute bag, or a nice skirt. They are part of a whole outfit, much like my outer appearance is part of a whole person.