When Your Outfit Makes You Happy

Is there anything better than wearing a cute outfit that looks good, feels good and makes you happy? Clothes are such an obviously important part of my life, but as my body/life changes, sometimes they aren’t such a source of happiness. This outfit though? I think it sums up where I am in life.

It’s my favorite designer of all time (Rebecca Taylor has the BEST, most flattering silhouettes for curves with a hint of sexy OR perfect for the office) that makes me feel confident. The heels? Sam Edelman is my absolute go-to for work events and are the best non-designer heels you can have. Bag? I carry my Burberry almost every day, but this $30 fun bag is how I’m trying to have fun with my higher-end pieces. Lipstick? A powerful color is my signature now. I’m working on finding my signature red.

Honestly this is an outfit that I wear to work (Carrying my trusty backpack that I can’t say enough good things about!) and then just put on a bold lipstick to do things afterwards. You kind of get me extremely dressed up or you get me in yoga pants. I have absolutely no in-between and I kind of don’t apologize for it. Casual clothes aren’t that comfortable to me and I’ve stopped pretending.

I also think that all the people who were preaching buying fewer clothes that are well-made were right. It’s fun to make some updates with accessories but I have so much more happiness looking at my closet knowing that I’m not going to have to replace everything because it’s all so trendy. My wallet is also so much happier! I’ve bought a lot less items as I’ve become more discerning about what makes the cut.

I look back so cringingly at the early blogging days where we complicated out clothing so much that we had dumb belts that did nothing and then three layers and were like THIS IS FASHION. No. Just stop that. I love that this blog has always had a visual feature of clothes, but it’s never been just about that. And you’ve allowed me to grow into a much simpler style that isn’t fussy. If you were with me in my 2014’s worst, you can have me at my 2019 best. I don’t have time to complicate my clothes anymore and feels so much freedom to wear what genuinely works for me.

I feel like less closet clutter = less mind clutter and after the intense over-buying of Target $10-$20 items that weren’t really helping me and instead focusing on what I want my clothes to say has been one of the best things to come out of our Marie Kondo/Organizing/Whatever thing we are doing January 1st.

I hope my happiness shows. It’s a stressful but wonderful season of life right now. Job change, wedding saving and planning and many other things have been very present, but I am so grateful that my smile is genuine and I don’t feel like I’m just going through the motions.