Oh, Dress you up...

I know, we’ve been here. You love your khakis and your blue button downs and your jeans and your sweatpants. But there's something you’re telegraphing when you wear those, too. Oh, you thought it was that simple? And it’s not only my opinion, btw. 

I choose what I wear. We all do.  I know that some people would not recognize me on a weekend because I wear totally different clothes than what I wear during the week  (I'm more like the person Mads saw in Philly or the person Huntley knows). I'm literally a different person when I'm not at work. Aren’t we all?

I agree with the video when they say that clothing acts as a medium of self-expression and that it becomes a powerful tool to communicate one’s identity. Clothing shows the ‘YOU’ you want people to see. That's what you're literally saying with your clothing choices. That's why I think we need to understand the significance of personal attire beyond thinking of it as just 'clothes', or thinking we don't do 'fashion' because we're not a clotheshorse. And that's because we are actually curating wardrobes that align with our true selves and we are constantly sending a message with whatever it is we are wearing...

As we transition from being dressed by others when we are children, to dressing for whatever institution we belong to (schools, the military, a retailer) to choosing our own outfits (those jeans, those sweatpants, those cargo pants, those button downs), we engage with patterns, colors, and styles that articulate out our backgrounds, values, and personalities. There's really nothing 'simple' about wearing 'simple' clothes. 

And that's fashion, babes.

XOXO