Rediscovering style and fashion

Where has the time gone?! I can’t believe I have been away from this blog for so long! 2021 has been such an interesting year for me so far… my word for the year in January was restoration and I have literally been learning and experiencing every bit of that word. Restoration, like growth, is new, it’s challenging, it’s painful, it’s rewarding, it’s basically a rebirth.

I’ve been discovering so many things about myself, especially on the creative side, and kind of just nurturing that side of me that I have repressed for so many years, and I have gained so much confidence in myself. So much so that I have really started expressing myself more through my clothes, and my style.

I’ve always loved fashion but I’ve also always been scared of it… see I was scared of it because it wasn’t wild, trendy, or show-stopping, and as someone on Instagram said the other day, “especially compared to the real fashion girls”. For me, fashion has always been easy, comfortable, convenient, and accessible and it has been so refreshing and fun for me the past few months honing in on that and what I am wearing, making conscious style decisions, and actually sharing those with the world through my Instagram!

I recently went to see the Willi Smith exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Museum here in NYC and it really helped me make sense of this disparity. Willi Smith was one of the first American designers to create clothing inspired by and for everyday people and what they wore on city streets – and that’s how I’ve always seen fashion. Definitely not a unicorn reserved for only the most exclusive people.

NYC streets are such a great display of this point of view and every day I walk these streets I am insanely inspired! I put together this outfit after my visit to the Willi Smith exhibit and I think it captures a lot of what he embodied.