#theeverydayproject

So the fashion industry, eh? All in all it hates my type, a petite-plus size gal, woohoo thank you, genes!! However, that’s never stopped me from dressing to express myself. In this series I talk about my love hate relationship with fashion, the pros and cons of the industry in my opinion and where I see myself fitting in. Spoiler alert, it’s not anywhere haha, but that’s what makes fashion so great you can mold it to fit you, but for some of us it takes some extra work to find items that work. I’m going to give one positive and one negative-opinionated blurb about the industry and fashion in general. I’ll start with the negative, because we should always leave on a positive note :)

The number one thing I hate about the industry is that it makes me feel like I’m intruding, like I’m not supposed to be there and everyone who’s in the know, lets you know you’re unwelcome. One time I was at the House of Blues in Chicago to see the band Marianas Trench, I went to see them by myself and if you’ve never been to a concert by yourself, I highly recommend, it feels spiritual, I promise. Anyway, I felt adventurous so I decided to walk up the stairs to see how far up I could go. I made it to the top level and it was almost nauseating on how high up it was. I will say it was pretty cool to see a concert from a bird’s eye view for a song or two, but that’s all I could stand before I started getting dizzy.   

Here’s the proof I was that high up haha. The lead singer, Josh Ramsay is in the back playing the drums, he was also singing while playing, pretty dang cool. 

As I was walking back down to the main level I got lost, (if you’ve never been into the House of Blues in Chicago they have a bunch of staircases with doors and actual doors that lead into rooms both types of doors look very similar.) I walked into one of those mystery doors to what I thought was the staircase I had used to walk up. Instead, I found myself in a room with a bunch of guys in business suits, who whipped their heads around to see who just walked through the door. All I remember is walking into a smokey room and all these guys were staring at me with puzzled looks, my anxiety got the best of me and I awkwardly waved and said “sorry, I’m trying to find the stairs,” turned around and left right away before they could even say anything. That's how the fashion industry makes me feel, like I’m walking in on something I have no business being a part of, which is a sucky feeling, if you know the feeling, hello I hope you’re doing well. I just want to let you know you’re not alone and I know how horrible the fashion industry makes you feel, and I’m sorry for both of us that this industry made us feel that way, but here we are against all odds thriving in it!!     One of my absolute favorite things about fashion is the creation of outfits and using articles of clothing that I already own. To me it’s a test to my creativity on how many outfits I can make using the same one item. Don’t get me wrong, I still buy new things to add to my wardrobe every once in a while, but  that’s few and far between, unless I’m super stressed or extremely emotional than watch out retail therapy, because here I come!! When I do make a purchase I try to make sure I can make at least three outfits with that one item before I finalize the purchase, well I usually try to do that. Sometimes you just buy things on a whim, and for me it usually becomes a staple in my wardrobe, I call it dumb luck. For example, when I was away at college I lived in a rural ass town in central Illinois, and trust me they’ll let you know you’re in central and not southern Illinois. There’s only a few places to shop for clothes in town, the biggest selection was at Walmart, which I frequented a lot, since well, you know there’s nothing really to do in a small town anyway. Honestly that’s how they get you with that one stop shop food and clothes in one place, hellz yeah!! I felt like I was always broke, but I would somehow always find money to browse the clothes section :) I normally only buy off the sales racks, because I took fashion merchandising classes and I know how things work, haha. This particular time, my attention was drawing me to this long shaggy vest, my first thought was, “This looks so 70s” then it reminded me of Penny Lane from the movie Almost Famous, so I knew it would be a smart addition to my wardrobe, because you can’t go wrong with anything fuzzy and warm, especially if it reminds you of one of your favorite movies. 

That whim purchase has now become one of my most prized possessions and a wardrobe staple. Do you ever do that math thing to figure out how much it cost to wear that one item you purchased? So lets take that shaggy 70s vest and say I wore it 10 times and made 10 different outfits with it, you take how much you paid for it, which was $26 and divide it by 10, so every time I wore that vest it was $2.60 a wear. Not too bad in my opinion and totally worth the buy!! That is one of my absolute favorite things about fashion, the ability to keep using the same piece for different outfits. And the more you wear that piece the more you’re getting your money’s worth!! Here are 3 outfits using that shearling faux fur vest.  

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first in my series, Michelle’s Pros and Cons of the Fashion Industry. I can’t wait to write more about the fashion industry through my eyes, and hopefully be able to connect with people through our fashion woes and finds. I’ll have to figure out a signature sign off, but for now enjoy your moment and thank you for the read!!

Sincerely,