Taking a Chance

Since I was little, I have always had a certain passion for fashion.  This stemmed from my mother’s respect for the different decades and centuries of diverse textiles and ensembles.  I was raised to inspect the changes of styles, the times when it reverted back, and recognizing fun trends at an early age.  I would sit in my mom’s bathroom and thumb through her many books that outlined the different eras of dress (as well as her People magazines;).

I should say that my humble circumstances of being a ninth of ten children held me back, that they made it impossible for me to reach the heights with my clothing that regularly I would have been able to with more money, but this would be a lie.  From middle school, turning my old high-water pants into capris with fun, brightly colored trims at the bottom or begging my mom to make me a skirt out of an old remnant of fabric, to beginning high school with a pair of hideous four dollar silver pleather pants or an entire ninth grade wardrobe made up of bright hippie clothing bought at a store sellout for next to nothing, it was all about being forced to take chances and find another way to express myself.  As hideous as those ensembles were and as much as it pains me to look back on them now, at least I took a chance.  I am a lot more proud of those moments than when I gave into social pressures at the age of fifteen and my wardrobe conformed to the masses.  Boring and expected. 

As I got older I realized that I didn’t want to blend into a crowd, it just wasn’t me.  Now as I am a mother, a wife and an artist I can’t get enough of that feeling I used to have.  I love the challenge of putting an outfit together for next to nothing but still making it look good or pairing items that people would ordinarily never picture together but end up liking despite themselves.  These are fun experiments for me. 

I don’t pretend to be the best at it but I enjoy taking the chance.  So come along with me, if only to watch me fall on my face just a little.  If you think you can’t do it yourself you are so wrong.   The only way I ever learned (or learn) is by taking a gamble every once and a while!

(my outfits: Bottom right: lace crop top- forever21 $15, navy shade shirt- downeast outfitters $12, belt- thrifted $1, skirt-thrifted $2, shoes-Ross $12, rose soap earrings-payless $2.  Top left-I have no clue but isn't it cute? My style really hasn't changed much;) and please note the dragon mural on the wall behind me, my talented artistic brother painted that and some others around the house, wasn't my childhood awesome?)