I Let a Fashion Editor Dress Me For a Week, and Here's What Happened

I'm a pretty laid-back chick who likes wearing comfy jeans, tees, and layers. I don't wear skirts or dresses (out of habit of not showing off my sturdy Polish legs), but I do love a good heel, so I'll admit that for this experiment I was more excited about the shoes than I was about anything else.

I guess you could say my "look" (if you can call it that) was built out of utility versus style. I have an almost-2-year-old and fell deep into the trap of neglecting my own wardrobe in favor of dressing my son in cute sweaters, cords, and Pumas. He definitely dresses better than I do.

Rebecca, our fashion editor, did not hold back on day one. I was expecting her to ease me into this whole process, but to my amazement/hesitation, I was thrust into this green skirt and Billy Idol shirt combo within minutes of arriving at work. I appreciated the sparkle tights since this skirt was far higher than anything I would have chosen myself.

I was worried that the ensemble would look frumpy, but the cinched waist helped balance it all out while the chunky necklace drew the eye up.

I always say that Tuesday is the new Monday, and what better way to kick off the week than in some comfy jeans and a cat sweater!?

This look was in my wheelhouse, but the leather over-the-shoulder jacket made me feel chic. Hard to keep on, but worth it.

I thought I may have been getting punked when Rebecca showed me my Wednesday look. Another pair of jeans paired with a sweater? Maybe this won't be so bad after all! But after a closer look I realized — hello! — she was giving me a lesson in pattern pairings.

I never would have put this sweater with this shirt, but I will from now on. It was so effortless and gave my run-of-the-mill weekday a boost.

Walking into the dressing room on Thursday, I realized why she was giving me such a break the days prior — because she had a SERIOUS look for me on Thursday. In my mind, this is the definition of "I could never pull that off" and I was immediately frightened. Red, black, and white with a hot-pink statement sweater? I could not wrap my head around it.

But after walking around for a while and getting compliments, girls much younger than me asking where I got it (which was an ego boost all by itself as a new mom), I felt pretty good about Thursday. And it was there, in this unlikely outfit on a random Thursday, I realized something very important: "I could never pull that off" was creeping into how I thought about other things in my life and totally holding me back.

Cooking, for example — I'm a self-described "terrible cook" so I stopped trying because "I could never pull off" that recipe. Or meeting new people — I'm an introvert so I could "never pull off" going to a networking event. Even the small things like creating one of the cool art projects I've pinned on Pinterest seemed impossible to "pull off" because I'm "not very artistic."

Not being able to "pull that off" was becoming my excuse, my crutch, my limitation to avoid failure. But it was also keeping me from growing and learning new things. So I made a promise to myself to stop trying not to "pull things off" and just do it.

High off of my newfound mental mindset, Friday was pretty awesome in this cute party dress, which landed on just the right day for an office happy hour. The dress was super comfortable, and the belted gray sweater added just the right amount of office casual while the boots — oh the boots! — were a fun way to round out the outfit.

I felt great — not only on the outside, but on the inside, too.

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