Hiyah! (Is that even a word?) I'm so, so, excited to be a part of Gentri's "Know Your Style" series today! I'm Allexis and I blog about fashion/personal style at Life of a Coy Fish. I always find it odd and slightly pretentious to call my blog a fashion & personal style blog, because I'm essentially just a glorified selfie taker... heehee
Let's get down to bidness, though, because I'm not (supposed) to be here to crack slightly funny, but mostly lame jokes. As far as my own style goes, to be honest, I'm not sure I've even found it yet or that I ever will. Style, for me, is largely based on my mood and because of that it changes quite a lot day to day. Someday's my style is very classic and ladylike, others it's edgy/boho, and then other days it's just down right odd. That's what's so fun about style, though, you can make it what you want it to be and you can tell a story about yourself and your mood through what you're wearing!
When I go through my closet to put together a look, I like to ask myself, "How do I feel today? What do I want to project to others? On a meter of one to ten how sassy do I feel? (It's almost always a ten)" I'm very much the type of person to wear my heart on my sleeve. In a literal sense. I also believe that style is one hundred percent about confidence. A person could be decked out in head to toe Chanel and if they didn't feel confident in it, it wouldn't look good. If you ever see someone wearing an outfit you think is cute and find yourself thinking, "man, I wish I could pull that off", find similar items, try them on, and if you feel comfortable and confident in them then guess what- you can pull it off! Confidence is radiant, regardless of what you're wearing.
When it comes to shopping I like to be frugal. Mostly, because I haven't found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow yet. Curating fashion on a budget can be so fun, mostly because I've always thought it's easy to look good when you've got tons of money but it's more creative and relatable to have good and inspiring fashion on a budget. Over the years I've come up with 4 steps that help me save money when shopping-
First, I like to go through my Pinterest feed, go through my own fashion Pins, see what others are Pinning as well, and make an ongoing list in my head of the things that I'm loving and would like to incorporate in my closet. I'll also add things to this list by posts I'm inspired by on Instagram or things that I just know I would like.
Second, I start the hunt for the items I'm loving. I like to start this by breaking up my list into items that are "trendy" and items that are "classics". This will determine how much I'm willing to spend on each item and were I'll go to look for them. Polyvore is always a huge help in finding some of the more difficult items. For my "trendy" items I'll usually stick to F21, h&m, or OASAP because they almost always have the best deals. For my "classic" items I'm a little more willing to splurge because I know they're items I'll be wearing at least twice a week and therefore need to be more durable. For these items my go to places are ASOS, Banana Republic, Nordstrom, and on the rare occasion that I'm willing/able to do a major splurge I'll hit up Zara.
Third, it's important to not be afraid to check the clearance/sale items because more often than not you'll find what you're looking for at a major deal!
And fourth, once I've found the items I want I'll put them in my shopping cart, look at my totals (they're always scary high), determine what items I love the most/will actually wear more than once, and delete about half of the items in my carts if not more. From there, I'll type in my zip code on the website's "find in store" tab and see if I can save a few bucks by going into the store to get my items rather than paying for shipping.
When it comes to determining your own style, evaluate what's in your closet now, what you wish were in your closet, and the pieces you're drawn to. Determine if there are any themes among these things and you'll be able to find your style. If there aren't any obvious themes, don't sweat it! That just means you're a style free spirit like mine and you like a little bit of everything.
Always remember that confidence is key! That's how, I, at least, can walk out of my house wearing overalls and purple rain boots, and feel totally flickin' and sassy regardless of the fact that my mom told me she would like to light my boots on fire...
When it comes to fashion, if you're confident there are NO rules!
-Allexis
