How Far Out Can Your Personal Style Be?

If you can confidently say that you do not care what anyone else thinks, good on you, but to be honest, I don't believe you. Obviously there are different degrees of confidence and I advocate for feeling comfortable and confident in who you are. But, as humans we have an inexplicable nature to wonder what others think of us. Though this is a natural thing, the thought of what others think has gained too much weight over the past few years thanks in part to social media. I'm not saying to stop posting your selfies or to take the dog filter off of Snapchat or anything like that. What do you think blogging is anyway! All I'm saying is that when we reveal ourselves to the world, whether that be in person or on the internet, we should do it out of confidence and not worry about the outcome rather than insecurely, looking for likes in order to build us up.

Something that can undoubtedly give you oodles of confidence is personal style. If we've learned anything from What Not to Wear it's that no matter what you look like or what you do, putting in the effort to build your personal style truly pays off. The best thing about fashion today is that anything goes. No longer are we ruled by trends or by a specific era. The question is, with style becoming so broad, how far out can you go? 

I keep myself up to date with street style and every time I'm scrolling through a slideshow of Phil Oh's I wonder "could I really get away with wearing that at school or work?" My solution is normally to take inspiration but heavily water down a look. Why do I feel the need to do this? I'm thinking it's because in some way I'm self conscious about my overtly FASHION clothing choices, not because I don't love them but because I worry the people seeing me won't understand. Take the look I'm wearing in this post for example. Will someone recognize my blouse as a nod to the PJ dressing trend made famous my Dolce & Gabbana, or my shoes a dupe for a popular pair of mules from Gucci? If they love the look, does it matter if they know where it came from? Does it even matter if they love the look?

Is that me underestimating my own community? Do I worry too much about what others think? Should we fashion enthusiasts bottle up our creative spirit and endless ideas? Probably not, but I don't think the answer is that simple. I don't have the answer but I'm happy to ask the question and get you thinking.


Thanks for reading.

-Emily