My Fashion Story

I think it's important that you get to know a little bit more about me and how I became so interested in fashion and why I decided to start this blog in the first place. I've always considered myself to be somewhat of an introvert and I have always been careful not to use the word 'shy' or 'quiet' to describe myself and others like me because it's just not true. I know many intoverts, including myself, that have no problem carrying on an intelligent, interesting conversation or even starting a conversation themselves. It's not always that we're shy or abnormal. A common misconception people have of introverts is that we are weird and we don't know how to talk. Another one is that we think we're too good or too special to talk to people, like they dont deserve our time and attention, when in reality, we really just prefer to chill out and stay behind the scenes, and having alone time for an introvert is extremely important. I know when I am around people for too long (too long can be different times for anyone), I get really irritable and unfriendly.

I like to think I'm a pretty confident person. I believe I will live a successful life and there are qualities about myself I like....I think if I were someone else, I'd be friends with me. Of course there are things I dont like about myself and I always will to some extent feel insecure in some way about something. For example, I've struggled with an eating disorder for a few years and I still live with it everyday. Even at my lowest weight, 101 pounds, I still despised my body. Everyone has something they fight with everyday, whether it be something personal like body image or depression, or something external like bullies at school or going through a trauma such as rape, abuse, etc.

Back when I was in middle school and high school, I dealt with extreme anxiety and daily panic attacks, insecurities, friend problems, and of course my lovely eating disorder. As I've mentioned, I still have issues and that's normal but when I was going through school, those issues were magnified and intensified by a thousand times the size they are now. I was very insecure and people's opinions mattered so much to me. If someone would just look at me a weird way I would think to myself, "Oh God, does my face look weird? Do I smell? They must either hate me or think I'm disgustingly unattractive. Probably both." But strangely, there was one thing I had that I didn't care about people's opinions on. Something that was mine. Something that was precious to me, that I felt for some reason 100% confident in no matter what anyone could have said. That thing was my style. I always took fashion risks. I remember once in 8th grade when I wore these knee high black and grey striped socks adorned with obnoxious hot pink skulls. I wore a plaid mini skirt and this glitter/sparkle filled gold t-shirt. Looking back, that was a total fashion fail, but when people turned to look at me in the hallway, I didn't think, "Do they think this looks stupid?", I thought, "I feel so great today. I think I look amazing!"

Fashion has always been my way of expressing myself. I feel like the way we dress is so informative and can be such a great way of making a statement without saying a single word. To a certain extent I believe that how we dress reflects who we are inside. But many times people can surprise you. When I was much younger I used to look at people with piercings, tattoos, and crazy colored hair were so scary and mean, but I was surprised to find out that many of these creative people are some of the kindest, warm hearted people I've ever met. Looks can be deceiving but they can also tell a story.

Since I was a little girl, maybe as young as 6 years old, I had stacks of notebooks (which I still have today) filled with detailed fashion designs including what fabrics I would use, the cost of the product, and where it would be sold. Fashion design was the first career I wanted to have as a child. Since then, I decided against fashion design but I've become extremely interested in the marketing/buying side of fashion and the editorial side of it as well, which is what partly inspired me to start a blog. I love learning about fashion; about the history of fashion, designers, fabrics, everything. It's just so interesting to me and I spend about 3 hours or more everdyay reading magazines like Vogue and Elle, which help me stay informed on style in today's world. Now at 19 years old, one year out of high school and still not sure what college I'm going to, I am confident that whatever I do, whether it be in the fashion industry, my relationships, or just personal problems, I will be successful and work as hard as I can to get to where I want to be. You can't succeed without hard work and passion. Luckily, I was born with a raging passion for fashion that just keeps growing everyday and with that passion, I will be inspired to put in the hard work.

Hopefully that gives you more of an idea of who I am and why I love fashion so much. To say I love fashion is an understatement. Because it's not just about the fashion. It's about the freedom, expression, and creativity, all qualities that I see in myself and hope to expand on as I journey through my life in the fashion world.

Thanks for reading!

-Haley xxx