Feed Your Passion for Fashion

First and foremost I must apologize for my incredibly long blog-silence, alas I have been busily studying up on fashion whilst working, studying, and maintaining my social life. Fear not, I have experienced fashion on both sides of the pond now, and my obsession is only growing.

            Now more importantly, Paris. There are not enough words in the English language, not to mention space in this blog, for me to describe the immense perfection that is Paris France, so for now I will stick to the fashion.

            As an aspiring fashionista with basically no real money to my name, I was absolutely terrified the first time I walked up the gritty metro stairs into Paris. Would I be able to find any item that would not drain my account? How was I supposed to find anything with a name that my precious food euros could afford? Was I going to be able to leave covered in Paris head to toe, or merely just head or toe?

            To my pleasant surprise I found it, those elusive places where the fashion is fabulous and Caitlin priced. Though my Mecca was the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, home to all of the top designers, I found the next best place, the Rue du Mouffetarte. Full of small boutiques featuring the clothing styles worn by most young Parisian women, Mouffetarte is not only home to the best Sunday open air markets, but the most affordable up to date French fashion.

            Due to the fact that I went to the most fabulous city on the planet on a school trip I could not spend every minute of every day shopping, though my fellow fashion obsessed friends and I spent much of our free time doing just that. When not shopping we experienced everything that Paris had to offer, trying our damndest to immerse ourselves totally in the culture.

            People watching took on a whole new serious level for me while in Paris. Parisians take getting dressed for the day more seriously than anything I’ve ever seen before, turning presenting oneself to the world into an art. The body is celebrated through clothing in Paris, every piece designed make the wearer look effortlessly flawless, though each article is generally simply designed without any overly flashy embellishments.

            Women in Paris are so incredibly intimidatingly beautiful that one may think that it isn’t just the clothes that make Paris feel as if Vogue has exploded all over the place. The female gender takes pride in looking good in Paris, which is probably prompted by the insanely flirtatious Frenchmen (which by the way, you can’t walk down the street without getting ‘the look’ from someone or without being openly hit on, and it is the most fabulous self esteem boost possible). Women don’t just put on clothes for the say in Paris, they present themselves to the world through their clothes and their confidant nature, knowing that they have the right outfit on, and that they look amazing.

            The thing that amazed me the most is that they never looked overdone. They did not wear flashy colored eye shadows, generally wore solid darker colors or very simple and alluring patterns, and they were always perfectly accessorized from head to toe. Everything was a fairly simple piece of clothing on its own but when combined with the rest of the outfit made every individual look as if they had a personal stylist dressing them every morning.

            One cultural difference that baffled me was their insistence on covering everything, and by this I don’t mean covering the chest region (though they generally did that, it was not such a big deal), rather their need to cover legs. I came face to face with this fact one day when I dawned my cute khaki daisy duke shorts, due to the fact that it was in June, and in my mind summer time=short shorts. Apparently short shorts=hooker in Paris, for all women wear tights under shorts, a fact that I was completely unaware of. The whole day I got looks of lust from most men, while looks of disgust from most of the women and generally all old people. I came to learn that though I did not fully understand why I was treated like some hooker alien, their culture viewed showing off certain parts of the female body differently than ours, and I can fully appreciate the fact that we have differences.

            Overall I learned that the French have an appreciation for the female body for being something other than the bearer of children or the object of lust. The female body is worshipped rather than objectified; beauty is more than just the body type or hair color. It is a temple, and the clothes that are worn are the stained glass windows, the frescos one the wall, meant only to further the beauty of the structure.

For those of you who are a member of Greek life, or are dating a Greek, formal season is upon us. It is that time of year again, when grown adults get all giddy about dressing up for a more ‘grown up’ version of prom. Thus begins the quest to find the perfect dress and shoes, which no one else will have, without emptying your bank account.

In high school I never stressed over prom like many girls do. I would wait until the last minute to find something to wear, purchase the first dress that I was officially satisfied with, and throw together some accessories that matched appropriately (generally stealing necklaces from my little sister, who seems to have accumulated a mass collection of jewelry). For some reason I never really took any of it seriously, until I came to college.

Formal has it’s prom-esque tendencies (in that you eat a fancy dinner, dance the night away, and consume mass amounts of alcohol, all while looking fabulous), but it supersedes any level of fashion that a high school-er could pull off. When picking out a formal dress the whole point is to find one that doesn’t look like you are going to prom. Those gigantically poofy Cinderella dresses are soooooo out of the question, and a general rule of thumb is to go for a cocktail dress. After all, we are adults now, and grown up women wear cocktail dresses, not ball gowns.

There are a few general guidelines one should follow when picking out a formal dress. If you are super tall, going for a long a-line dress would be killer (ala Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’). Tall women can also pull off a floor length silk low backed dress, like the one that Kate Hudson wore in ’How to loose a guy in 10 days’ ( I would avoid a dress with a train though if you plan on dancing and not looking like an idiot doing it). 

For all of you short women out there, do it short…As in get a short dress. Knee length teacup strapless dresses are one of the best dresses to flatter a shorter person, in fact don’t get a dress that goes too far past the knees (not to mention too close to your crotch, after all this is a formal dance, not a Decatur prom). Any dress that has a seam right underneath the breasts is always a good bet for short women, because it makes the torso look longer, and is great for any of you who have bigger boobs because it doesn’t make you look preggers.

I found two dresses that were perfect for me (one is that knee length strapless number that I mentioned earlier, and the other is a below the knee silk chiffon  v-neck dress with wide straps) and I came to a problem that many girls may face: Which one do I buy? Now I was fortunate to find them at the Limited in Bloomington, where my mother fortunately gave me a charge card to (stupid move on her part), and they happened to be have a sale on everything in the store. Apparently Karma worked in my favor for one day, and since I was so fortunate to find what I wanted I bought both dresses.

Now, I am not by any means suggesting that everyone runs out and buys multiple dresses on a credit card that their mother pays, because it is extremely impractical (and I only managed to get away with it because my birthday is in a few weeks).  If you do manage to find a killer sale, or happen to have an irregular amount of money for a college student (or maybe you saved up money for this very event), I say buy, buy, buy!

No matter what you decide to wear, just remember to find something that flatters your body. Every woman secretly (or not so secretly) wants to look glamorous, and dress up like a movie star going to the academy awards, so for one night you should be able to. For those of you that are not going to any formal kind of dance, it never hurts to have pretty dresses in your arsenal of clothes. And above all else, make sure it is comfortable!

As I roll out of bed in the morning and bash the off button on my alarm, I come face to face with a daily trial: deciding what to wear. Though I have meticulously gone through my wardrobe, constantly recycling things that I don’t wear anymore, I have far too many clothes, which of course means that I don’t have anything to wear. Everybody has to deal with this problem every day, and some people even take the time to pick out an outfit the night before or wake up early to spend extra time to get ready. I am NOT one of these people.
I believe the trick to rolling out of bed and looking fabulous is to do just that. Now I know that most days when I go to class I just wear a t-shirt of some sort, jeans, and my Uggs (not to mention I rarely put on more than mascara in the morning), meaning that I usually look like a bum. But I have made that my thing. Everyone is used to me showing up in class looking like I rolled out of bed and threw clothes on, and so far no one has had any problems with it. On the plus side, when I do make the effort to look nicer than usual it stands out in peoples minds.
The trick to being comfortable wearing whatever you pull out of the drawer first is by defining your own personal style, and by this I don’t mean that you have to be “preppy” or “emo”, I just mean that you need to be happy with every piece of clothing that you own. Since most women (and men) have far too many clothes, at least a third of their wardrobe is hardly ever used (if ever worn at all). I know that every one of you out there has that awful sweater that your aunt gave you, that you keep around in case you ever see her, but if you don’t love it you won’t wear it.
I’m sure we would all love to have a closet full of Dior couture or Anna Sui dresses, but sadly we are all living on a college budget. We do not have an endless supply of fabulous outfits that we can wear once and never wear again, so we have to pick and choose clothes that we can wear over and over again. Every person should go through their wardrobe at least once a year and throw out old shirts and such that you have no intention of ever wearing again (and be realistic, don’t hold onto your high school band t-shirt unless it is something that you wear often).
When you are shopping look for items that either match with something that you already have (or frequently wear), or find something that is totally unique that will allow your wardrobe to branch out in a new direction. Say you classify your wardrobe as very bohemian chic, and you are entering into the business world so you need to start changing the way you dress. Start off slow by just getting one pants suit (or a jacket, or skirt that may go well with clothes you already have), and mix and match it up. You would be surprised how well a floral boho shirt goes with a nice pair of slacks.
You don’t have to be classified as one particular style either, in fact I find that it is best to have different items from every style. I have amassed clothing that is stylistically vastly different, yet it all has a similar color scheme (blues, greens, blacks, and browns) and most importantly it all fits my body type (short, big boobs, hips that wont quit, a smallish waist, and short little legs and arms, thus making it very difficult to find any clothes that fit me properly). Though I’m not going to go into great detail right now how important it is to have your clothes flatter your body, it is a very important feature in looking good. Some days I feel like wearing a baby doll tee, and other days I rock the patterned button down with scrunched sleeves, basically always wearing jeans (except on a weekend night when I bust out all of my dresses).
Moral of the story, wear what you are comfortable in. Style isn’t about adhering to one particular ‘look’, its about looking great no matter what you wear. If you are uncomfortable with the way you look in certain clothes, donate them to good will (there is absolutely no reason to throw clothing in the trash when it is still able to be worn by someone else). So when you roll out of bed in the morning try just throwing something on, in fact don’t even look at yourself in a mirror. If you are comfortable, you will be happy, and if you are happy people will like you, ere-go don’t think about it, just put it on!