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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Queen's U chapter.

I love fashion and cultivating my own style through thrift stores and Pinterest theme boards. I like being quirky and keeping fashion weird, but it’s a little difficult to rock these looks when walking the streets of Kingston. I feel as though if I lived in a lively and spunky place like New York City or Toronto, I would fit right in and strut my stuff, but why am I setting limitations for myself and my fashion? I’m keeping fashion weird and throwing my anxieties surrounding it out the window!

I live for weird and quirky fashion items, statement pieces that will turn heads, something new and fresh that not every human being is currently wearing. I like mixing patterns and wearing odd pairings, I like being comfortable in my clothing while still feeling like I could walk a runway, but I haven’t always been so confident in my fashion style and if we’re being real, still am not fully confident in it now. 

person holding assorted clothes in wooden hanger
Photo by Becca McHaffie from Unsplash

The process of choosing an outfit, for any occasion, is time-consuming.  I go through a variety of options of what I want to wear and what I will feel good wearing, and in the comfort of my house with no one else’s eyes lurking, I do feel good. I feel like a damn fashion icon, but once I step out the door my attitude seems to change. I go from this fashion icon serving straight looks to shrivelling up trying to cover my outfit and appearance as if the girl walking past me in her pyjamas is going to look and laugh at what I’m wearing. So what happened? What changed in that quick change from environments that I go from confident in my look to wanting to hide because I am dressed differently than everyone else? That anxiety that my fashion and my outfits are too weird and not actually as fire as I thought they were sucks because you put all this time into this look and then you somehow turn yourself around about it. Well, no more. 

Woman at the beach at sunset
Photo by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
The thing is I know I shouldn’t care what I look like or if people around don’t vibe with my outfit ensemble because I’m not dressing for them, I’m dressing for me!! I choose these looks for me, I base them off of what I like and what makes me happy and if I get a compliment on my outfit then that’s just an added bonus to my day, but it’s not what I’m looking for or dressing for! I hear this all the time from fashion social media accounts, I’m not dressing in these funky outfits for people my age, no no, I am dressing like this so younger girls can pass me on the street and go “Woah look how cool she looks!” and see that wearing what you want and what makes you happy is WAY more fun than just following what everyone else is doing! 

So get on your best outfit, something that you’ve always wanted to wear but were too nervous or scared to. Step out the door, plug in your headphones, turn on some bops and STRUT! Life is too short to wear boring clothing anyways. 

 

 

HC Queen's U contributor