Breaking Your Fashion Image
Imagine a prepster with chains on his black pants. Picture a Goth guy wearing a pink skirt. Envision the biggest bookworm exposing his chest in a bright, orange henley. After you stop laughing, let’s discuss what made these jarring images so traumatic.
We all have our ‘Fashion Images,’ which go hand-in-hand with those cliques from high school like jocks and Abercrombie and Fitch, Goths and black, skaters and tent-sized pants, and nerds with pocket protectors. We may enter the workplace and accept removing our nose rings and hiding our Godzilla tattoo, but our style does not change. Once the weekend comes, out come the Bart Simpson t-shirt and board shorts. One of the biggest challenges building a fashionista-worthy wardrobe is breaking your ‘Fashion Image’ and looking fabulous in as many ways as you can.
I’m a huge comic book caliber nerd; so much so that I can tell you the difference between Superman Earth-1 and Superman Earth-2. During high school I wore thick glasses, matted down my oily hair, and lived in dull shirts and bland jeans four sizes too big. Now, I’m a flaming homosexual writing fashion advice who still enjoys Pre-Crisis Green Lantern comics. But this was a slow process. For a while, I felt self-conscious in my sunglasses. I worried that people could see through my coolness and laugh at this nerd’s attempt to cross genres. Now I change-up my days between professional preppy with samplings of gay hippie and even gayer cowboy.
The key to breaking your fashion image is to widen your style, making you more unique. This doesn’t mean your have to un-dye your hair and get a piercing. Never will I prance in leather pants or sport a do-rag. That’s pushing it. I have grown through the awkwardness of seeing myself with a necklace, huge belt buckle, and cowboy boots. That’s the difficult part. How many times have you liked something but just thought it looked wrong. You knew it worked, but there was just something…awkward.
Don’t let yourself get locked into a limited school of fashion. This is why you should always make major shopping decisions with trusted advisors. Your friends should be able to combat your natural tendency to avoid the different. Conversely, I find a big fear for trying a new piece of fashion is what people will think. Will they see through my image and/or laugh at me? When you think these things, remember; even plaid can be pulled off by the right fashionista (and a very experienced one at that). Almost (almost) everything can be worn if worn correctly. The challenge is the fun part, so experiment!
Finding new, feasible ideas can be a challenge unto itself, which is of course the reason one would read such an article. But because I charge these suckers by the word for my infinite wisdom, this article is focused on combating the limitations to finding new ideas. Since it would take an entire Barnes and Nobles section to address every different style, I’ll give you some examples of the stuff I’m working on to show my brilliance in its practice.
Hats My love for Gene Kelly movies has compelled me to make hats work in an age with manga inspired hair gel. When I wear a small rimmed detective cap, I feel like a mix between Sally Bowles and Humphrey Bogart, but when worn on the right occasion, I am noticed for having an intelligent and original fashion accessory.
Thick-Band Watch Me and my nerdiness do not lend well to the spiky accessories in Hot Topic, but my fancy, shiny silver watch is equally uncomfortable with my faded vintage outfits. While I’m still scared of all the spikes, I have been opening up to overly decorated watches with wonderful results, but I now keep my scientific calculator in my back pocket.
Suspenders Okay, before you laugh, realize that this is a perfect example of what I’ve been talking about. I haven’t worked out all the kinks yet, but I tell you, I’ll make suspenders work. I just have to end what seems to me my overall attempt to live inside a Bob Fosse musical.
So, let loose! Give in to your desires and break your fashion image- after the first time, it gets easier, and I promise, you’ll never look back!
