Feed Your Passion for Fashion

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!