All Dressed up with Somewhere to Go

A few weeks ago, while walking to class with a friend and my friend's friend, my friend commented "Dang, you're always so dressed up" and then her friend concurred and told me, "I feel like such a slob in t-shirts and jeans compared to you." As I began to experiment more with fashion, hearing these types of comments were not foreign to me. My mom often wonders why I am so dressed up all the time. For instance, over Thanksgiving break, I wore a combination of my yellow sweater, a black ruffled skirt, and aqua tights for Thankgiving dinner and my mom once again wondered why I was so dressed up. The next day, Black Friday, I repeated many of the same pieces and my mom asked me "Why are you dressed up just to go shopping?". This got me thinking. Am I seriously, really that "dressed up" that it elicits such comments? And what does the definition of being dressed up mean? It's not like I wear heels and fancy dresses on a daily basis, but even when I try to add a little funk in my outfits, I get the comments of "Wow, you're so dressed up!". And finally, in a fit of rage, I ask "Why is it so abnormal to be dressed up?!" Okay, I'm not in a fit of rage. It just sounded nice. I'm positive all the way. Positive power ya hear?

The definition of "dressed up" has a lot to do with where you live. Living in Southern California has it's ups and downs stylewise. People here can wear their cows-jumping-over-the-moon pajama pants with their fugly UGGs and an oversized college sweater without worrying about when the style mob will come out of nowhere and stone them with their high heels until they cry "UNCLE!". We Californians are known for our relaxed style, our laid back way of life, caused by our endless amount of sunshine and happiness. However, when someone decides to go on the opposite spectrum and get a little "dressed up", people look, people stare, quite possibly thinking, "Why the heck are they so dressed up?! It's fricking California for godsake, through on some jeans, flipflops and tees!" And nowadays being in my pro-dresses/anti-pants and my current 1940's glamour obsession has made me paranoid that every person I walk past may be wondering what's the occasion. I wearing my current uniform of a dress with tights and click-clacky shoes (not that fashion forward by any means) renders myself to be labeled as dressed up. Moreover, when I do not throw on a dress but just play around with clothing, people still think I'm dressed up. Does experimenting with fashion equate to being dressed up? But hey, I like it. I like to dress up if that's what you call it.

Some girls cannot leave their house without drowning themselves in foundation and liquid eyeliner. For me, I cannot leave the house without "dressing up". There are a few exceptions such as when I revert back to my nerd mode in light of testing season. There's absolutely nothing wrong with your good ole jeans and t-shirt, but personally, it's just not me anymore. It used to be me when I was a disgusting oil head highschooler. I believe people should be able to wear whatever they want to wear and even if I may not appreciate their styles as much. I'm not a judger, I'm a lover.

As a kid, I wasn't the little girl who loved to play in her mommy's closet and wanted to secretly steal her red lipstick. When I was five, however, I did try to do makeup with markers- a little apple red for the lips and a touch of cerulean blue for my eyelids. It was a disaster. It looked like a slug had tried to do my makeup. So not attractive. I think this childhood memory is one of the reasons that, to this day, I still fear doing my own makeup. It's like water and oil. We just do not mix well. So basically, I never had that "dress up" phase as a kid. Despite my tomboy facade, I deeply yearned for one of those dress up boxes filled with costumes, mommy's castoff dresses and the feather boas. It was all about the feather boas and the boas with the tint of sparkle were the winners. I remember going to my friend's birthday sleepover and upon seeing her dress up box, I wanted to steal it so bad. But clearly that was not what good friends do. "Stealing is a sin" kept replaying in my head as I recalled my teacher's voice back when I attended a Christian school.

Perhaps I am fulfilling my childhood desire to dress up by wearing dresses, tights, and skirts constantly these days. I just find it amusing that what I wear is considered "dressed up" as if I am too formal or look too put together for everyday life. What's so wrong for looking put together? Is it such a crime that I happen to love to wear dresses and tights instead of jeans and tshirts? Sometimes I wish that women still dressed up (or my definition of dressed up) like we did back in those iconic fashion decades of the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's. But then again, I don't wish for such a thing because the inner feminist inside of me is angrily stabbing my heart right now.

Now if I wanted to "dress up", I would do it in this fashion:

P.S I had a little too much fun with Photoshop.

Me as a flapper in the 1920's

Me wearing a Schiaperelli suit in the 1930's

Me with my friend in the 1940's. Yes I did have friends, even back then.

Me in Dior's New Look during the late 1940's

Me traveling in Rome in the 1950's

I seriously could have spent all night photoshopping my face into all these gorgeous fashion photos from decades past but I need my beauty rest for tomorrow I shall wake up and dress myself up again.

I forgot to mention in previous posts, but I made it as a designer!! HOORAY. I'm super excited, now all I need to do is figure out how I'm actually going to make my designs.