A Little Background
Ever since graduating college and moving into the “real world” I’ve been in style limbo. College was all about trying out whatever trend I felt like, and building a style all my own. Once I started my first job as an engineer, though, I got it into my head that I couldn’t dress the way I used to. That was in part due to the requirement to wear long pants to work each day, a struggle when most of my closet was filled with dresses at the time, and the desire to not stand out any more than I naturally did. Being a 23-year-old, just-out-of-school engineer entering a manufacturing environment is intimidating.
It’s been two years since I started that first job. I’ve moved on to an even heavier manufacturing environment, and even being a couple years older doesn’t help much when trying to get a job done and not always being taken seriously. So much of what I have bought in the last two years has been to blend in, and it hasn’t always reflected my personal sense of style or made me feel comfortable with what I was wearing.
I got to a point not too long ago where I was at a total loss of what my sense of style even was. My outfits were simple and boring at best. I was dressing for function with no look at form. I thought I’d lost the passion for fashion I’d had since high school and I didn’t know how to get it back. ย But recently I’ve been doing a bit of self-reflecting and finding that my style has been there and evolving all along, I just no longer flowed it into my own outfits.
Look at your Inspiration Boards
Once I started actually looking at what I was
reblogging, pinning, and liking online, I noticed the style trends pretty quickly. ย My biggest source of inspiration is looking at other bloggers, and my
tumblr is full of reblogs of outfits that I love. ย Scrolling through hundreds of posts from the last couple years shows a pretty consistent style board.
The same thing can be said of most of the other places I roam on the internet. Take a look at your social media profiles and search for trends and consistencies that stick with you over time. Whether you are using tumblr, pinterest, instagram, or fashion centered sites like polyvore, lookbook, or any one of the many others, looking at what you’ve liked over time can really help you piece together the lasting bits that make up your style. Make sure to recognize that there may be fast fashion trends mixed in and that the style may have evolved over time but roots in the same general vision.
Just to show a bit of progression in my own inspiration, look at the three polyvore sets I put together. ย Even though over 5 years separates the oldest from the most recent of these three, the style trends are still pretty distinct (I’ve been a fan of black and white a long, long time!).
Forget the Idea Your Style Doesn’t Suit You!
What has stumped me for so long, is the idea that what I like style-wise and my lifestyle somehow don’t mesh. This crazy idea has been slowly chipping away at my confidence in my fashion choices and dragging down my self-esteem at the same time. ย I’ll readily admit that what we see online can be rather stagnant. Often it is the same tall, slim figures showing us what we should be wearing and how we should be wearing it. But that doesn’t mean short, slightly stout ladies can’t rock the same styles!
All that really matters is that you feel great with what you are wearing. It’s okay to tailor your style vision to fit your lifestyle as well. I’ve been telling myself for so long I can’t be stylish anymore because I have to wear pants, but so many of the outfits I have saved feature pants of some kind! Sure, I may not be able to pull off every trend I like on a work day, but I can still pull inspiration from them. Don’t let your size or job or anything else stop you from injecting your outfits with your own style!
Go For It & Experiment
What I like on someone else may not work for me in exactly the same way, but I really won’t know unless I try, right? The hardest thing about re-finding your own sense of style is actually acting upon it in real life. While I don’t have a wardrobe full of clothes that match the aesthetic of my tumblr, I can still incorporate elements of the style into my outfits by using what I have.
I’m also making a list of things that I feel are missing in my closet. Instead of buying more of what I already have or impulse buying things that don’t work with the rest of my things, I’m working on putting together a list of things that would benefit my wardrobe. This includes things that could use replacing due to wear.
I’m already trying to mix up my outfits to reflect the style I like more than what I feel I should be wearing. It’s easier on the weekends than the work week at the moment, but even those outfits are being reassessed now that I have a better idea of what makes me happier and more confident.
The most important thing is to feel good about what you go out in. If you are comfortable and rockin’ it, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Sometimes you may have to make adjustments for the situation, but you can still do you!
