Intro.
Hello! This is a different post from what I usually write on my blog but today I'm going to be discussing my fashion journey so far! Recently I've been getting into fashion, and I wanted to write about it here to discuss how this started and where it's going.
The beginning.
Prior to 2024, I hadn’t considered fashion that much. I knew about the major brands, but I dressed like what my parents had given me and what I got handed down from my older brother. But in the summer of 2024, I was given a pair of Ralph Lauren swimming trunks, and I decided to do some research into this brand. Then I started to buy more from this brand, first it was a hoodie and then it was a puffer coat, and it went from there. I had joined a men’s fashion Discord, but I didn’t post on the platform until the following month.
Styles, Tastes & New Clothes.
When I started to find out what my own personal style was, I had no idea what it could be. Previously the types of clothes I used to wear were jeans and a t-shirt, usually a hoodie on top and (if it’s cold) a puffer coat. But I’ve been wearing these combos of items for a long time, and they started to become boring. So, near the start of October, I posted a question thread on the fashion Discord channel I was in, and I got a few suggestions, Dickies and Carhartt trousers, chinos and cargo pants. It was here that I got suggested Vinted, a second-hand clothing app. I was aware of Vinted before; my mother sells clothes on the app and I assist with that by walking to the nearest Tesco to send packages off to Vinted, and I had read about buying second-hand clothing online from The Guardian. So, I downloaded the app to try it out.
I was hooked. I started buying a lot of clothes on the app. I remember seeing a hat from Burberry for £290 a few months ago, but I was able to snag a Burberry beanie off the app by putting in an offer of £50. When it arrived, it was a big hat, but it felt comfortable and luxurious. Going back to trousers, I’d ordered a few chinos from the app, as well as looking at secondhand stores. I’d also gotten a pair of corduroy joggers from TK Maxx, and I found they were a good refresher from just jeans all the time. A common color for most of these trousers I got were brown and beige and this was a color that started to appear a lot more in my outfits.
During this month, I got a suggestion to try and find a personal style for myself. I made another question thread, and I got a couple of suggestions for magazine resources I could use to get a sense of what my personal style is. One of them is a Japanese men’s fashion magazine called Popeye. I sent off an email to the university library and discovered that I had access to the Popeye magazine via the Pressreader app. I know very little Japanese, so I just use the magazine for fashion reference photos, but I have found it to be useful. I also started to look in the library for fashion books, as I knew that co-existing with fashion students meant there was an abundance of books in the subject, and I started to get inspiration for outfits I want to make.
The future.
I’ll admit that I’m still developing my personal style and taste, but currently it’s learning towards an Americana/Western look, with common colours being blues, browns, whites and blacks. Common items include jackets (like denim jackets), shirts, brown trousers, and dark and brown jumpers. I will continue to look through the library to get reference photos, and I will continue to seek new sources of inspiration. This will allow me to get a better sense of what my personal style is and will allow me to be more intentional about clothes I want to buy that would match with my personal style.