Something borrowed

And we’re back from the endless pit of failed expectations and learning to grow up (see translation: BE ALRIGHT with the fact that investing effort doesn’t guarantee equal payoff). But that’s a whole nother blog post topic coming up soon. As of now, I’ve decided to get back on track with a little challenge of borrowing from the boys (literally and well, metaphorically (? Cuz there is really no gendered dress code in this day and age of progressiveness))

This shirt is something I’ve literally raked out from my brother’s closet, and honestly this is the only article that I could borrow as far as sizing went. The general idea is to go up sizes when in men’s clothes to achieve that oversized look, but let’s be honest I’m not very tiny and at the same time, my brother’s feet and waistline are … a tad bit too big for me. I guess it is a little unfair in the sense that there is no way my brother could borrow anything from me.

I think the key distillation point of a boy’s wardrobe, or specifically from my brother’s closet, is that we can still be as comfortable as we’d like: sure fitted dresses and mini skirts are pretty, but that doesn’t mean that track pants and baggy shirts aren’t. What I felt from borrowing from my brother, is that (yes we can aspire to look put together) but it should not be completely be on the expense of comfort, the real challenge is not to see who looks the best, but who feels the best in what they’re wearing.

Another interesting I noticed, is that while boys generally don’t have as wide a variety of clothing options (heels, skirts and articles meant to emphasize the typical feminity), there is another way of dressing that they abide by: unity and coherence of their clothes. Hence when metaphorically borrowing from the boys, I suppose it is another learning point for us to not over rely on individual pieces themselves, but rather how to put them together such that it ties into the whole outfit.

Case in point: blue hue in mackerel on shirt = blue hue in track pants, white of shirt = white in stripe down pants = white sole of shoes. Even on the side of accessories, I tried to tie in blue in my earrings and make use of the visual cue of a downwards line in the striped track pants and add a striped belt-turned-choker. Excellent case study of what isn’t in unity in an outfit would perhaps be my shoes because there is hardly any black in the rest of the look (save my hair).

So there we go, some interesting styling ideas and lessons I took away from borrowing from another person’s closet. I think I might do another similar take on my mother’s closet to really give myself a challenge: how not to look like I’m going for work wearing a middle aged women’s clothes. I’ll be signing this off by challenging anyone to experiment a little with someone else’s closet, might just be a little more entertaining for us to learn something new about ourselves.