Crossposting in FFA and EHF

With the year ending I thought it appropriate to write about changes this year and general comments on my journey with fashion and relationship with clothes.

I’m not as well versed with specific designers as some other users here, but I can at the very least talk about myself.

Started off the year without knowing of the existence of EHF and at that point mostly dressed like this. I was slightly too cold that morning, and while I still have all of those items I wouldn’t wear them all the exact same way. My boyfriend likes to call that baby blue duster coat a crutch, and I think he’s right. I’ll get into that more a bit later. My Doc Chelsea boots are still my go to travel shoe and just general go to shoe for when I need to go out for a quick errand or when I’m feeling uninspired.

At that point my goal was to be trendy. It was to look as fashionable to the most amount of people, so that when I would walk around the city or my campus that strangers would compliment my outfit. I thought that I needed to look good to everyone else and only then do I actually look good.

I owned mostly fast fashion (UO, AA, Qlo, H&M) and had some vintage pieces from /u/Xenataur’s mom. I looked to /r/streetwear for inspiration, my most unique item was my baby blue duster from UO, and I wore my mesh dress as a layering piece all too often. However, I had already started a pretty decent shoe collection since I was “into” streetwear and sneakers. Some shoes I had for a while already and some shoes I barely got before the end of 2015, but for an idea of where I stood... I already owned:

• indigo suede Stans (because I liked the shoe but didn’t want the classic ones every other fuccboi/gril had)

• Nike Air Max Milan’s

• tuk creepers

• the often highly recommended sk8 his that I wore as my beaters

• Chicagos

• NB574s

• and last but not least clear Jeffrey Campbell slip ons.

So as you can see, my shoe collection was far ahead from my clothes. I still wear every single one of those shoes, but with different frequency than before.

February is when I got my first real designer piece, this Yohji Yamamoto wool dress that /u/Xenataur had to convince me to get. I’m so glad that he did, because it started my path in designer clothing. Being a broke college student, I have to be very careful with all of my purchases and this is one of my favorite pieces. I love how it sits on me, it drops straight down and almost envelopes me, I like getting lost in my garments now and this piece began my new relationship with clothing. I don’t need to show off my hourglass figure to feel good, I get to showcase this beautiful dress on my body instead. I started to think about clothes differently, but this is still early on in that journey.

The picture above isn’t actually from February, I think I was too scared to wear it when I first got it, this fit is from some time in April.

Late March is probably the earliest that I started to wear outfits that I’d probably still wear today, and even wear very similar outfits to this day. I started to wear wider pants, and got these for free so why the hell not. I’ve always loved scarves so layering was not new to me. The silhouette was new though, I had usually dressed for emphasizing my hourglass shape as is often recommended in FFA. Before I started more experimental outfits, I probably would have worn a tight crop top with that outfit instead, so as to emphasize a smaller waist and show off the bust area.

April is when I got accepted to EHF which is also when I started to take fitpics more frequently since I was able to get more feedback from users here. I didn’t know it then, but joining EHF would expose me to different styles, encourage me to look for great deals, and further appreciate clothing as art and not just as a way to look as good as possible by average societal standards.

I participated in my first monthlong WAYWT challenge in the EHF cinco de mayo challenge.

This is the short write up I did within the monthlong post:

I included a short comment in each photo including the brands as well. If anything is thrifted it's either from Buffalo Exchange or Savers. I noticed that half of my clothes are thrifted or from /u/xenataur's mom.

Started it off with a gym fit since I was just studying that day. My favorite fits are probably Days 2, 13, 22, and 25. /u/xenataur and I disagree on 13 and 14, I do like 14, but isn't one of my faves.

About halfway through I started my summer internship so there's a bit of a shift in daily wear and I'm still getting used to business casual. Overall it seems like my style is pretty cohesive, I have a lot of simple pieces but I think the way all of the items fit, the different textures, and the various cuts keep it interesting. I would definitely change a few items in different fits now that I can see everything at once.

My current thoughts: I would actually probably rewear some of those outfits. After May 21st I didn’t have the baby blue duster coat anymore, because I accidentally left it at my dad’s house after his wedding. So about it being a crutch, if I was ever stuck with what to wear, I would fall back to letting the coat being a way to “elevate” an outfit. This prevented me from being more courageous with my fits, and I didn’t get the coat back until November so from June-November I didn’t have that as my go-to outfit pick-me-up. I always get comments when I wear it, so it’s an easy way to feel like I’m doing fashion “right.”

During summer months, since I was doing an internship I think I sort of stalled in terms of growth in my style, but I was still involved within the EHF community, actively looking at new inspiration on instagram, blogs, etc. I also expanded my wardrobe of designer pieces. This is already long so I’ll jump to the EHF Fall Monthlong WAYWT challenge, I did a really long write up so I’m only copying a bit of it here:

Full album.

My personal challenges: The first part of the monthlong I gave myself the challenge of rotating through my collection of shoes once before I could rewear a pair of shoes. This was successful and it was interesting, but I definitely wouldn’t try to rotate like this all the time. After that, I tried to only wear at most one or two black pieces in an outfit with dresses counting as two pieces. However, this started to become tiresome and way too restricting when I would get dressed in the morning so I quit part way through.

Summary: I think I captured my day to day outfits pretty well, but it was still pretty warm some days and I don’t really like my outfits in the warmer months as much as the winter time. I got a lot of new things during the monthlong (Dries van Noten shorts, fuzzy dress, Issey Miyake patchwork pants, Limi Feu dress, Kapital hakamas) so there were a lot of first time wears during the monthlong. I’ll be trying each of them some more and hopefully find what works best for each. The Issey Miyake pants I may taper myself, but I haven’t decided yet. Considering a lot of the fits were my first time wearing some of these things, I don’t think I did too bad. I like being able to wear a range of styles and my wardrobe allows me to do that.

My current thoughts: There were a LOT of misses and not so many hits during this monthlong, after this challenge I think I started to get a better feel for the new pieces I got and my overall style.

Let’s jump to the present..

Here’s a few recent outfits: one, two, three, and four

Here’s an album of my overall favorite fits of 2016

I really favor my hakamas and wide pleated pants.

My outlook now: I’m all about experimenting with different shapes, silhouettes, and textures. Yes I wear a lot of black now, but I try to wear different patterns/textures if I do. I also now default to wearing my wide pleated pants, which I will probably try to limit moving forward so that doesn’t become a crutch like my baby blue coat was. I no longer really worry about emphasizing my hourglass shape, and I care less about what other people think. I know in FFA there’s a lot of the same advice given, so I just wanted to share a style that’s a little different than what I see here. My goals usually revolve around being comfortable, but I also want to showcase beautiful work done by creative designers that I admire.

I will usually wear at least one designer piece most days and I now own pieces from designers/lines: Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, CDG, Limi Feu, Kapital, and others I’m probably forgetting. I do this by shopping secondhand, and pretty much all of the pieces are in great to like new condition. So I’m able to explore the world of high fashion without breaking my budget as a college student.

I hope to continue changing my outlook, I don't want to get stuck too much on one style. As comfortable as I am in what I wear right now, I think it's really fun exploring new pieces, shapes, silhouettes, etc. I'm going to be getting rid of most of my fast fashion items, and I'll try to continue to be open to new styles that I see. I will probably get into the habit of selling a piece in my wardrobe as I acquire a new one, but only once I've got all my basics.

TL;DR: I don't care about what other people think as much, now I wear wide pants all the time, and now my wardrobe is worth a bit more.