By: Gabriela Yareliz
Taking a styling course was a fun investment. We are still in this weird place where we don’t dress up half as often as we used to, but we aren’t in loungewear 24/7, either. We are emerging from the dark pond of pandemic uniforms. I am starting to put some of my knowledge to use.
They say you have to study the rules to break them, and I have to say that while I have seen and studied many forms of dress and images, there is a style I find the most interesting, and that is the eclectic one. It sort of picks and borrows from them all. It isn’t always elegant or rule-following, and it isn’t always classic or trendy. It often falls in some weird category of its own. I love it.
I think it reminds me of being a kid. I liked simple things, but also weird things (still do). I tried to be inventive with what I had; I loved picking out random things and mixing them with hand-me-downs, and I didn’t care what people thought or whether it matched or not. I remember I had these little green shoes I wore with everything. I always had weird little sunglasses and tights for church.
Two people I love to watch on the style scene that I think embody this style are Alexa Chung and Camille Charriere. Both of them do their own thing, and I am here for it. (Carrie Bradshaw also did this well).
I have learned that elegance is a form of showing respect to others. Trendiness is a waste of money. But there is something to be said about freedom. Freedom liberates you from whatever “it bag” or style shoe Instagram and marketing is trying to push down everyone’s throat.
Freedom allows you to be comfortable (or uncomfortable by choice). It isn’t rigid, and while there may be a brand or two mixed in, you aren’t a billboard– you are just you.
I love the idea of being memorable, not because of the logo stitched into your breast pocket or the monogram on your bag, but being memorable because you decided to be an original. We spend too much time being clones. We spend too much time begging for status (this is what was so annoying about the ridiculously expensive Abercrombie-Hollister-American Eagle crowd, back in the day).
It’s not for everyone, but I say, wear the pink cowboy hat. If you like it, wear it. Screw the convention and boxes of it all. Some people don’t consider what they wear the work of art; they consider the life they are living the masterpiece.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 