A pair of said shorts

Wow, this is some pretty deep “one hand clapping”, “tree falls in a forest” kind of stuff huh? But it’s something I’ve been… I don’t want to say struggling with, but it’s totally something I’ve been struggling with.

Do you remember back when I used to post every day? Yeah, every day. I’d put an outfit together. Go to work, revel in the attention and the comments that elicited (both good and bad), write a post about it, take pictures, upload and repeat. I did that for a whole year.

And then I took the plunge and pursued the opportunity to go freelance. It was the perfect solution. My styling business was taking off in a way that was severely cramped by my 9 – 5 job and this new move meant I would work less, be paid more and be able to dedicate more time to my blog and styling business.

So that was pretty much bang on 2 years ago and what’s happened? I blog intermittently at best and it’s been (many) months since I’ve taken on a styling job.

Why?

Well this is where we get into the whole “Does personal style exist if no one is there to see it?” thing. Because I mean, sure it does. It’s not as though I suddenly lost my ability to pattern mix and you best believe I still wear skulls as much as possible. But I work from home. All of my liaising with clients is done via email and Skype (without video). The only people I see are occasionally the postman, and my Husband when he gets home in the evening.

So what is the point in putting together an outfit? Don’t get me wrong, I get dressed every day. But there is no reason to wear anything more than shorts and a singlet.

Earlier this year I posed the question, “Who are you dressing for?” and I guess this whole situation has made me question that.

I dress for myself, right? I don’t wear anything to make anyone else happy or to impress anyone else. So whether I put an outfit together or throw on said shorts and a singlet, it’s for me. But I guess that’s not entirely it. I feel I have an obligation to dress for you guys. And the longer I go between posting, the worse I feel.

Because I really love having a blog and I really loved posting every day and coming up with outfits and dressing people and interacting with the blogging community. And I’d like to keep blogging, but how do I do that if I’m not putting together “blog worthy” outfits?

After posting a new outfit every day for a year I began to feel that dressing the way I did, coming up with a new outfit that pushed boundaries and really expressed “me” sort of defined who I was. And not doing that… Does that mean I’ve lost who I was? And does that make me anyone now?

I’ve tried writing this last paragraph a bunch of times but the thing is, I can’t wrap it up nicely. I don’t have a poignant answer. To be honest I have no answer to this question at all.

I’m not going to stop blogging. I’m not going to stop loving personal style and helping people develop their own. And look, to be honest I’m probably not going to stop wearing shorts and a singlet because I live in Queensland and it’s hot.

So I guess I know what I’m not going to do. Now it’s just time to figure out what I am.

Shorts: David Jones