Personal style creates opportunities to showcase body positivity and unique fashion

The question always asked when it comes to fashion is how to dress. While there will be situations such as work and different events that might require a dress code, this question extends into your personal life as well.

A million articles will tell a person how to dress based on a person’s physical traits, looking at what color palette would best suit you or what clothes would be the best for your figure. While it’s not wrong to want to know those things, often those articles leave out the most important part.

Who are you dressing for? It’s one of my least favorite questions because I shouldn’t have to dress for anyone.Throughout fashion, there will be trends. While trends in clothing will let us know what will be available to wear, plenty of people will take it upon themselves to tell you how to dress. I have seen everything from recommending what to wear to catch your crush’s eye to the perfect outfit to match your body.

As someone who doesn’t have a mainstream body, the idea of trends is limited to hiding certain aspects of my body to appear more appealing. While this isn’t a new idea, I think it’s good to remind everyone on campus that we don’t need to dress for anyone but ourselves.

Body positivity and neutrality isn’t a new idea. The personal growth from following style tips from people that might know who you are or your style can be draining. The transition from high school to college is different, and you start to grow more as a person. As the years go on, the idea of people not caring about what you dress like is more prevalent. Sure, it’s nice to get a compliment once in a while, but knowing that you are enjoying your outfits, I would argue, is a better feeling.

My view on fashion is best said by the designer Alexander McQueen: “fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.” While new trends start to form, we are seeing different models on the runway providing different representations of bodies around us. Fashion will continue to be a creative outlet for me, and I think it should outstretch others. Life is too short to dress for others.