Monday, March 25, 2013

The Evolution of My Style: a Hilarious Retrospective

Everyone's style changes over time - it's part of growing up. That doesn't make looking back any less funny, though! Any of my family members could tell you that as a child, "dress" was not in my vocabulary. I was all basketball shorts and Life is Good t-shirts, and almost everything I owned had puppies or neon peace signs on it. And as I got older, it didn't get much better - like many of you, I went through the standard "emo" phase and straight into "scenester" territory. All of this is terribly embarrassing, but entirely hilarious. I decided to surf through my old photos and give you guys all a good laugh as I examined how my style evolved into what it is today.

Too Cool for Elementary School

(Super flattering pictures courtesy of my dad's Facebook. Unsuspecting family members have been cropped out to spare dignity)
Hobbies: Pretending to be Harry Potter characters, reading Meg Cabot, obsessively playing Neopets
My style: "Literally just rolled out of bed" chic
Signature pieces: Tye-dye Hawaiian Spongebob shirt, flare jeans from Limited Too with the American flag screenprinted on them
Favorite accessories: Animal jewelry (not much changes in a decade, apparently), jelly bracelets, scrunchies with peace signs on them
Preferred hairstyle: Ridiculously severe ponytail

Preteen Angst
(This one picture kind of says it all)
Hobbies: Going to concerts, scrolling through the Fall Out Boy message boards, dramatically Livejournal-ing about my feelings
My style: Some combination of "lazy suburbanite" meets "misunderstood emo"
Signature pieces: Hot Topic Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends hoodie, 50 shades of black men's band t-shirts, beat-up Converse with the toes signed by a now-irrelevant metal band
Favorite accessories: The paper bracelets they give you at concerts (see above), skull necklaces
Preferred hairstyle: The classic "brush-and-go"

Aspiring Scene Queen
Hobbies: Pretending to know more about bands than you, taking Myspace selfies, not going outside, denying the fact I needed glasses
My style: "Human Highlighter"
Signature pieces: White bandana, Vans slip-ons in a rainbow of colors and patterns, ill-fitting skinny jeans
Favorite accessories: Plastic necklaces with diamonds on them, black eyeliner expertly matched with dark brown eyeshadow
Preferred hairstyle: Stubby pigtails and greasy bangs

The In-Betweener
Hobbies: "Photography," complaining about my minimum wage job, stressing about college from freshman year of high school onward
My style: "Half-Hearted Preppy" meets "Leftover Relics From the Scene Era"
Signature pieces: Like, 3 whole shirts from Urban Outfitters, assorted Hollister sweatshirts, Nike Dunks, skinny jeans
Favorite accessories: Weird half-smile half-scowl (pictured), ridiculously oversized purses
Preferred hairstyle: Straightened in the front, couldn't be bothered to fix the back, paired with super trendy overgrown bangs

50's American Girl Doll
I think my style evolved into something resembling what it is today right around the summer after high school, when I dyed my hair red. My mother likes to call it "I Love Lucy," but I once described it to a friend as "50's American Girl Doll" with touches of "Librarian Chic"   and I'm sticking to it. It's a little bit girly, a little bit loud, and a little bit classic. There are a lot of polka dots, gauzy tops, and floral prints to be found in my wardrobe. I have a whole drawer full of tights and my dorm closet is actually overflowing with fit-and-flare dresses. 10 year old me might be a bit horrified, but I think it suits me just fine.
I hope you enjoyed this incredibly embarrassing portal to the past - it was a lot of fun for me to put together. I'd love to see some of your style relics!


17 comments :

  1. very cute! love your last outfit :)

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  2. Isn't it great to see how you have evolved into the young woman you are today! Great fun reading this post!

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  3. Oh my goodness, I feel like I found my twin haha. Same style evolution, almost to a "T"!

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  4. hah, that is too funny! Good thing we grew out of those phases, eh? My mother sometimes jokes that she never thought she'd see me wear color again for a few years there. :)

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  5. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. I need to do something like this. I love the aspiring scene queen! Those phases are always the best haha. You certainly grew into quite the stylish young woman though!

    Also, thank you so much for buying ad space on my blog! I'm so happy to have you on there :)

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  6. Haha, that's what my mom often jokes! We were actually just talking about it tonight, which is why I found your blog post so funny. Oh the awkward photos I have pleaded with family members never to release!

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  7. Thanks, Elana! You should totally do one, it was such a blast to put together. I'm so glad to have my first ad up on your site! I think our styles jive well together, so it's a perfect fit :).

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  8. This is super cute and fun to see how your style has evolved and changed. Definitely had a (long) in-betweener phase myself! But loving the way your current style is described.

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  9. YOU LOVABLE FOOL. Why you gotta be so cute? I wanna do one of these...except it would just be "looks like boy" "scene kid who still sort of resembles boy" and current which is "looks like girl sort of except when she pulls an all nighter/it's finals week/she doesn't care in which she reverts to looking like boy." I mean, straightforward at least. :]]] GAH I'M DYING AT THE FALL OUT BOY PIC

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  10. haha no please do one I'd love to see it! I's so much fun to make. And oh, Fall Out Boy, so bad at smiling for photos. Meanwhile I was internally exploding.

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  11. Oh how cute - I love how you categorized things. I went through a lot of similar phases, actually almost dead on. It's kind of eery how alike our phases were. Limited too flare jeans. Tie dye shirts?!?! And rainbow polos for me. And the scene queen...I remember when myspace was cool and I wanted to be emo......

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  12. I think this is just wonderful. And I do not believe those top two pictures are you.

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  13. Thank you. And ha, I got that a few times! Puberty is a strange beast.

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  14. This is so funny! I think I went through all of these phases too!

    <3 Melissa
    wildflwrchild.blogspot.com

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  15. I love this post. I feel like I went through every phase you showed. Must've been the time period. But it's so funny when you see them all together.

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  16. This is so funny!
    It gets me thinking about my highschool days. Maybe I'll do this on my blog, too!

    Rachel

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  17. You definitely should! It was a blast to put together.
    -Annie

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