Fashion is my entire life. It is what has haunted my dreams since I was a child. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said without missing a beat, “Fashion!”. Now, here I am, a young adult still pursuing this mad dream of mine in a way that is anything but ordinary. This industry is not for the faint of heart. It is an exclusive club and as I am learning, is extremely difficult to sneak into. I have thought so many times about giving up and taking a path that would be easier. But I am never as peaceful and centered as I am when involved in fashion. It is ingrained in my soul to be in this industry. And even if I’m the only one who believes that, it’s good enough for me.
This industry is not without faults, but despite that, I have faith in the soul of it all. Fashion is after all the most immediate form of expressing ourselves. How poetic is that? Having your heart and soul shown to the world through an outfit? As an introvert, I generally have a hard time connecting with other people, the few I did connect with in my past turned out to be toxic. Fashion has been my close friend through the many lonely years of my life. It was there when I had my heart broken, it was there when I had a spinal fusion and thoracoplasty at 14, it was there when I graduated High School, and it was there when I leaped across the country alone. Fashion saved me. It took a girl who was stripped down and heavy with the weight of her trials and provided her with armor to battle her demons.
Fashion is powerful, influential and beautiful. Putting on a magnificent outfit sometimes is all you need sometimes to raise your spirits. So to those in this world who call fashion ‘frivolous’, ‘vain’, and ‘worthless’, I quote Frances Corner, author of Why Fashion Matters, “Fashion deserves to be taken seriously, warts and all, and celebrated for its beauty, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The fashion industry is among the most aspirational, industrious and dynamic of all industries.”
This industry is not without faults, but despite that, I have faith in the soul of it all. Fashion is after all the most immediate form of expressing ourselves. How poetic is that? Having your heart and soul shown to the world through an outfit? As an introvert, I generally have a hard time connecting with other people, the few I did connect with in my past turned out to be toxic. Fashion has been my close friend through the many lonely years of my life. It was there when I had my heart broken, it was there when I had a spinal fusion and thoracoplasty at 14, it was there when I graduated High School, and it was there when I leaped across the country alone. Fashion saved me. It took a girl who was stripped down and heavy with the weight of her trials and provided her with armor to battle her demons.
Fashion is powerful, influential and beautiful. Putting on a magnificent outfit sometimes is all you need sometimes to raise your spirits. So to those in this world who call fashion ‘frivolous’, ‘vain’, and ‘worthless’, I quote Frances Corner, author of Why Fashion Matters, “Fashion deserves to be taken seriously, warts and all, and celebrated for its beauty, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The fashion industry is among the most aspirational, industrious and dynamic of all industries.”