Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I recently posted a photo to the ‘gram with me trying 4 different tops with a skirt. For background, I bought this wonderful skirt at the Festival of Nations in St. Louis, MO from a Ugandan vendor and I LOVE it! I love that it’s the style of the African Ankara print skirts but the print looks a little “kawaii” to me. It’s a mixture of cultures in my eyes and I love it. Plus, it has POCKETS!!! It just wasn’t easy to find a top to go with these fun bright colors at the beginning of fall.
I was really fortunate and found several shirts that worked very quickly. Then I couldn’t decide which to wear! Each top created a different look with the skirt and I wanted to look nice. I wanted other people to think I looked nice, too.
So, what does any millennial woman in need of shopping assistance do? Take pictures and send them to your group chat, of course.
I took pictures, sent them off, and then…..crickets. Sent them to my mom...nada. I even called my dad and asked if he wanted to give me an opinion. (He valiantly, if a little hesitantly, agreed before I let him off the hook and told him I had a solution.)
Apparently everyone had a life that Friday night and I was on my own. So, through the magic of sales and coupons, I bought all of them (except one that was just too big and kept sliding around on my shoulders). It was a good deal and I knew I’d actually wear all of the tops at some point. After I left the store, opinions started rolling in. The first liked the color of the too big shirt but thought I should look to see if I could get that color in the long sleeve shirt (I couldn’t). The next friend liked the too big shirt. She thought it was more slimming than the others which was the opposite of what I thought. Next Mom says the long sleeve all the way. She likes the color contrast and the cut. I wound up wearing the long sleeved shirt and got a lot of compliments on the outfit. It turned out to be the most practical since the Midwest weather decided to actually be autumn that day. The next day I posted the photos to IG. Just for fun to tell the story of how my group chat left me high & dry and my IG peeps had even more opinions. The long sleeve from my hairdresser. Sleeveless from a doterra buddy. Sleeveless or long sleeve from a friend who married a friend I grew up with. Pink from a junior high/high school friend and there were more. All of these people, people that have styles that I like...had differing opinions about which was the best. There was no way to really draw a consensus and I didn’t need to. I realized that, while it’s nice to have a friend to make sure that you haven’t lost your senses and made a huge fashion miscalc, it’s really best to go with what feels good to you because not everyone is going to agree anyway and you always look the most beautiful when you feel comfortable and when you love what you’re wearing.
I decided I should follow a little more closely the advice I give to people who come in to my boutique, “If you like it, wear it. As long as you are comfortable, don’t worry about what people think.”
Maybe I’ll give the group the night off the next time I need an outfit…..probably not though ;-)
Are you the type of person who wants opinions before you make the fashion decision or are you more decisive? Feel free to let me know in the comments or weigh in on which top you like ;-)
-E P.S. The long sleeve navy was my favorite for this season, but the pink would be my favorite if I were to wear this in Spring...it matches the colors in the skirt almost exactly.