When I was younger, I had the popular phases: the preppy phase, the 2000s phase, the alternative phase.
Now, most of my time is spent working. My wardrobe has evolved to be:
- 85% work wear - sheath dresses and tops from Calvin Klein, Reiss, or Hobbs. I’m always on the lookout for a nicely cut, structured wool or trench coat or statement heels.
- 10% going out wear - jumpsuits, statement trousers, tailored high waisted shorts, statement tops, basic white t shirt, basic black t shirt.
- 5% work out wear
I’ve gotten rid of a lot of pieces I thought I’d use. For example, I don’t have very casual dresses because I don’t have use for them. I used to buy a lot of wedges for days out but I now wear either heels for work, white sneakers for everyday, or running shoes for working out.
I’ve gotten so much bolder. I still wear the same colors, and usually solids, not patterns. I’ve always been drawn to flowy clothing and jewelry but I was shy about my body and covered up. Now I wear that huge chunky necklace, those big earrings, that deep V neck and the biggest hat I can find. I didn’t mind dressing oddly before but I have a lot more confidence in my style, even though my body is even bigger now than it’s ever been. Fuck it, I feel good in my big hat and flowy dress and my 10lbs of jewelry. I challenge anyone around me to say a single thing about it.
I’m a software engineer working from home. My work wear is t-shirts with joggers. It’s now plain/block color t-shirts instead of the graphic tees I wore in my teen years but it hasn’t changed. I have more variety of pants than just jeans now.
I also don’t go out much and every time I do I freak out because I don’t know my own style besides t-shirts.
do you use pinterest?
I tried. Downloaded it and pinned some things but some styles that I like maybe don’t really suit me. Or I haven’t purchased the outfits I need to make it work for me. Any tips on getting Pinterest to work for me better?
I did 2 things that helped me.
Firstly, I looked at pins that I liked and tried to find trends among them. I tried to identify what kind of aesthetic(s) I liked even if what I pinned didn’t necessarily look good on me.
Secondly, I looked at my general body type. I thought about what parts I wanted to emphasize and what parts I wanted to balance out. For me, my waist is quite a bit smaller than my bust or hips. When i would go out shopping, I found that tops that hit at my hips or button down shirts made me look a lot wider so I scratched those and would opt for tops I could tuck in at the waist, or tops that had some sort of waist emphasis like a belt. However, as much as I loved the look of button down shirts with shorts, the sizing never seemed to work; if a shirt fit at my bust, it was way too big at my waist. This was something I just accepted.
Then, I took a look again at pinterest. I looked for items that were within my aesthetic but which emphasized the waist. For example, a lot of items I liked the 2nd time around (more like the 4th time around - there was a lot of trial and error) were cinched at the waist or had a belt. I had a lot of button down/short outfits pinned and I realized those probably wouldn’t work for me, but I did find a compromise in belted shirt dresses as well as high waisted tailored shorts with a nice top.
For example, I knew I liked outfits like this but shorts in that style (mid rise?) don’t work for me because of my waist to hips ratio and I found they always gaped at the waist; i found that tailored high waisted shorts suited me a lot better.
Some examples of the shorts i now look for are like this or this or this. My going out outfits will look like this or this or this. these are still part of the aesthetic i’m going for so i’m fine with it.
When I was younger I wore baggy T-shirts and jeans most of the time. I typically only wore darker colors.
Without going to far into my life history, I grew up with a shit family, who thinks putting people down is fun, so if I ever wore anything but that, I was relentlessly teased about it. My mother is also the type to put you down to make herself feel better. She has always been in competition with me (at least in her world). So, she used to love to make me buy clothes that just looked horrible on me.
Anyhow, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned how to dress my body type much better, and started branching out into far more “feminine” clothes. Turns out I’m actually pretty stylish, and have a nice body (I know, I’m super modest right?)
In winter I lean toward slim fit jeans, with a nice top, and whatever jacket keeps me warm.
Summer time is game on. I have tons of cute dresses. I lean more toward the kinda boho style, but with form flattering cuts. I LOVE backless dresses when it’s hot out.
I’ve always been the goth-scene-grunge kid around, getting older, I slowly ditched some of the things that felt juvenile. I didn’t wear a spiked bracelet with a band tshirt, I wore a leather harness with leather skirt, for example. I used to be a tattoo artist so work clothes weren’t different than regular clothes. I began having some health issues last year so quit my job and started running in the opposite direction with the excuse. Heels and harleys replaced by sneakers, skinny leather pants no more, only baggy light pants,75% cotton with elastic waistbands! Baggy flowy tops, all cotton or linen, all light colors, light, breating fabrics. The difference is day and night. I went to the point of rocking a kimono & a hakama with flip flops everywhere, completed by a couple of huge hoops.
I’m more comfortable than I’ve ever been and never going back.
. I went to the point of rocking a kimono & a hakama with flip flops everywhere
oh are you in japan/japanese? I haven’t seen any hakamashita since i was there
