It’s time to reevaluate your life. You’re starting a new year and it’s important to have a fresh outlook on your academic goals and what you’re trying to get out of the College of William and Mary experience. At least that’s what my dad lectured me on before I left for school for my senior year.
Although its hefty advice that’s hard to follow, I think that mindset can be easily taken and put towards your closet. My roommate and I have developed a very unique system that I believe everyone should try out to completely maximize one’s wardrobe. The system goes like this:
1. Randomly pick out an article of clothing, a top, bottoms, shoes, belt, an accessory —something that has not been one of your go-to clothing items. Basically, pick out something that you haven’t worn in a while for whatever reason and you must wear that item.
2. Then completely centralize the rest of the outfit around that one item. For example, just now I picked up a blue sequin-filled tank top that’s a little too gaudy for Williamsburg. So I would then decide to downplay its shininess by pairing it with something a little duller in color, either a gray boyfriend blazer or a longer navy cardigan.
3. If the top half of the outfit is extremely bright or patterned, it’s important to downplay the rest of the outfit so the main focus is still on the top half, or vice versa, depending on the old item.
This method, although a little different than what I’m sure most people are used to, has provided my roommate and I with novel outfits that have gotten multiple compliments on. We’ve coined the phrase “out-on-a-limb outfits” to describe how we’ve placed a certain amount of trust in the system, and it has yet to fail us.
We’ve really grown to enjoy these out-on-a-limb outfits because it forces us to take our clothes and get the maximum usage out of them. It’s about changing the way we look at our wardrobe. Why not put on those jorts (commonly used term for jean-shorts)? In this day and age, all the old era clothing — the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s — is coming back into style. Stylists have heavily encouraged people to start wearing that jean jacket again, or those studded biker boots from your mom’s old wardrobe. We have really taken to heart all the annoying pestering from our moms about how we never wear “that shirt I bought you” all those years ago. It’s not easy to determine the reason why this method works, but perhaps it’s because once you decide on the antique article of clothing, you can work to downplay its faults. But most importantly, you have to believe in your outfit. Its one thing to wear that blue sequin top and be ashamed about its metallic glare, but its quite another to rock out the blue hue in a way this campus has never appreciated.
Hey, Dad: Although I may need more help on the reinvention of my academic perspective, at least I have found a way to reinvent my clothing style.
