Dress for Thine Own Self

Top, Zara (boys' section!). Jeans, BDG. Shoes, UO. Bag, Filson.

It continues to blow my mind that people notice what I wear. And no, this is not an attempt at false modesty here. The group of people I hang out with on a regular basis are fashion conscious and therefore are usually aware of what I wear and such. Yet on a rare day, an acquaintance would come up to me and say she likes what I wear. However, it is not just a polite one off comment on an item of clothing I happened to be wearing that day, but rather observations on how much she appreciated my sense of style, something she found consistent and was unfailingly "me". This caught me off guard and was extremely flattering of course, but more than that it thoroughly surprised me because to put it narcisstically, I was always dressing for myself and myself alone. The guiding principles as to what I wear on any particular day mostly are just how I feel and what the weather is that day. How others will think of me through or because of my manner of dress are never a deciding factor. So what can I conclude from this? That you should stick to your principles and dress only to what feels right for you–no matter what kind of style you like or what society dictates as "good taste"–because you'll develop an innate lexicon of style where you can play around with a set of definitions well understood by you alone (i.e. set items of clothing). And who knows, someone just might appreciate your efforts and sound judgement. I will leave you with a quote from John Fairchild of WWD:

“"Style" is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style.”