4) Wear All the Things You Love at Once Even If They Don't "Match"
When I was 5, you might see me affix several star-shaped, glitter sticker earrings to each lobe, buckle on a neon-trimmed fanny pack, smack a NKOTB slap bracelet on my wrist, and pull on a pair of aggressively ruffled socks — all while I was still in my underwear. (That's me in the center of the picture above, inexplicably wearing a visor indoors, multiple shades of hot pink, and an extremely loud pair of spandex pants — shorts? shants? — that I wish I still owned today.
Those pink glitter cowboy boots I mentioned? One of my preferred ways to wear them was with black spandex bike shorts and a huge t-shirt shirt emblazoned with a pink, airbrushed leopard. And you better believe I cinched that swath of extra fabric with a hot-pink, plastic t-shirt clip. I wasn't obsessing over piling on status symbols so a street style photographer would validate my outfit. I was just wearing all the stuff I deeply loved at once because I deeply loved it.
To really embrace this part of the dress-like-a-5-year-old ethos, channel that same spirit of unhinged sartorial clutter in your adult life. Are these vintage lucite dangle earrings with this leopard-print Clare V. waist bag and that pair of marabou-fringed mules I bought on Amazon for $29 too much? Most likely they are, which is why they are just right.
5) Check Your Materialism
As a 5-year-old, I had no concern for, or even awareness of, clothing brands. (It didn't take long for a burgeoning awareness of Sassoon, Hypercolor, and Esprit to change that, sadly.) I just gravitated to colors, prints, shapes, and details I liked. And I certainly didn't have a gigantic closet full of clothing options to choose from. I was a kid! If I liked something, I wore it all the damn time and found ways to wear it as part of as many outfits as possible.
As an adult who loves fashion, letting go of an obsession with designer logos and the consumerist desire to buy more clothes than I can even possibly wear isn't easy. But there are myriad advantages to trying. It is great for your financial health, helps you let go of the desire to impress others, and helps hone your signature style. Case in point: the purple windbreaker I'm wearing in the top photo is something I throw on multiple times a week because I love it so much. I wear it with dresses, with cute workout clothes, with jeans and t-shirts. You can even style it as a skirt — I kid you not. It's recognizably me, and I've more than gotten my money's worth out of it.
While following this new motto has served me well, I think it should be obvious by now that I still dress like a grown woman with a closet full of grown woman clothes. I'm not proposing trying to squeeze into t-shirts from the kids' section, sporting actual NKOTB and Muppet Babies paraphernalia, or wearing Velcro sneakers — actually, maybe I am suggesting you try that last one. I am suggesting we embrace our deepest sartorial desires, rediscover the carefree approach to clothes we took as kids, and own the hell out of our one-of-a-kind, all-our-own personal style. Won't you join me?
