Thursday, October 14, 2010

Style Evolution: I Moved Here with Two Suitcases

Last weekend, my husband and I were driving around running errands and on the way to BORDERS I had a thought and I thought to myself- I need to blog about this!

I moved to Houston with two suitcases Yes. Two suitcases, that's it.  My entire life in those two suitcases.  I had lived with my mom throughout college so I didn't really have a ton of "stuff of my own"  I just came with clothes and other meaningful belongings. I must admit my suitcases were big and they were both well over 50 lbs, but still...that's a small amount of space for 23 years of your life to fit into.

Thinking about that got me thinking about the evolution of my personal style and shopping habits.  I have shopped a lot since I started to work...but what I never realized was that I kind of had to start from scratch.

I didn't have dress pants, skirts (aside from denim minis) and nice clothes for work.  In college I wore jeans, LuluLemon pants, dresses, hoodies, t-shirts and UGGS.  I didn't really have a sense of style back then other than comfy, cute, casual (the 3 c's!).  I just shopped at Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle and went with what was comfy for my daily commutes to campus.

The truth is, when I moved here and started to work, I didn't know how to dress for the real world, nor did I have a work wardrobe.  I was initially in the nonprofit world where offices are more casual (sometimes, um, a bit too casual). 

I noticed once I got my current position, I became much more into shopping. I wanted to make sure I had the right clothes for the office-  classic pieces like black pencil skirts, versatile black dresses, cardigans, silk blouses, dress shirts etc.  Those are things I didn't own when I moved here.

When I moved here, I started a new chapter of my life.  In the last three and a half years I've grown and changed in so many ways and a small part of that is just in the way I present myself.  The jeans, hoodies and flip flops are still around, of course...but as I look in my closet now, 95% of what I see was accumulated over the last three and a half years.

It feels kind of crazy to think about that.  I joked to my husband that I don't shop a lot because I "came here with nothing."  He didn't buy it!  I had to try, right?

I sometimes hear about people who have things in their closets from ten or 15 years ago.  Unless it's a classic piece, I tend to donate or sell a lot of my closet. Styles change, your circumstances sometimes change leading you to need or want a new look...your personal sense of style evolves.

So tell me, lovely readers, how has your personal style evolved in the last 5 years or so?  I'd love to hear about what you were wearing 3-5 years ago compared to now...or maybe just how your personal preferences have changed over the years.
Vintage Veronika- laughing at something I don't remember in the streets of Yorkville


The infamous hoodie- and vintage Lulu too!


The tweed jacket- pretty sure I still have this one!

xoxo,

Veronika.