I have always really liked my sense of style and enjoy helping others find their own voice in that element too. I appreciate body piercings, tattoos, unique styles of dress and things that are just a bit out of the ordinary.
I wear things I like, not because they are trendy or in fashion at the moment, but because something about them resonates for me. Maybe I like the way I feel when I am in them, or how they look on me, or their particular patterns and textiles they are made from. Some items in my closet have emotional significance, or were made especially for me. I like pieces that really do show my personality – bright, bubbly, optimistic and fun.
My tattoos bear a lot of significance and serve as tomes to remember the important thing. The left wrist filters the energy entering my body and reminds me that I always have myself and to always give love. The right wrist signifies the energy I give back to the world, and it’s a symbol that stands for community and forgiveness. My piercings are just additional little adornments that add more sparkle factor – I have an obsession for things that are shiny!
I think a lot of this sense of style and self expression has come from my mom. She’s a very free spirited, creative person and so I have always carried myself in a very similar fashion. Clothes do not identify you or give you value, so big brands and designers have never really had a lot of significance for me. I can like an item from the thrift store as much as I can enjoy something from Neiman Marcus.
The development of not really caring what is in fashion or ‘hot’ at the moment has definitely evolved over the years. As a child in school, especially through the high school and teenage years, I did care a lot more about what others thought and if I would fit in. I had my mom spend way more to get name brand everything and had to have everything from the ‘in’ stores. Now I really do know how well we can express ourselves and the message our appearance sends to those around us and I do not want to be just another face in the crowd from the pages of J. Crew, etc.
I think the core values of my family were things like honesty, integrity, strong work ethics, a sense of purpose, respect for self and others, being environmentally kind and super importantly, happiness. Again, my mom is a hippie at heart and she never really seemed to care what other people thought. She is a bohemian and I although she is usually heavily accessorized, I have always thought that her best accessory was her smile and the light that shines from within her.
She loves to find things at the thrift store which makes both environmental and economic sense. She doesn’t take more than she needs so that there can be something left for the next person and she taught us to do the same.
Mom always said we could be free to express ourselves and she totally stood by that. I wanted to pierce my belly button at 13 and although she did not want to do it herself and my dad abhorred the idea, she went along with me to hold my hand and support me. She respected that it was my body and therefore my choice.
My peers are a diverse group. I have peers at school and at work and they’re on pretty different spectrums. I feel that most of my peers at school are still figuring out who they are and identifying what they really feel expresses them through fashion and adornments. At work, there aren’t very many who give a lot of thought to what they look like. I work in the not for profit world and I have heard many of the social workers joke about how you know if someone is a fellow member of their group by their uniform – sandals, jeans and a baggy t-shirt. It doesn’t really tell you a lot about the person except to sort of state that their appearances don’t mean a whole lot to them.
On the other side of the coin, I do have some of the executives and people in our Creative Services and Marketing departments that are a bit more attached to their fashionable identities and how they portray themselves. Many of them wear current trends in business appropriate fashion—taking meticulous time to pay attention to the small details—much like the girl in my second observation that I wrote about.
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