Birthday suit

Well, today is my birthday! I am 34 years old, & for the first time I feel like my age sounds kinda old. When I look at a kid I think is in middle school, & he's drinking a beer, I know that I am getting older (that, or he has a really good fake ID). I still feel young, & I even feel like I look young, so I'm just going to continue to believe that I am young despite the fact that I may actually be 1/3 of the way through my life. Numbers, shnumbers, age is a state of mind anyway, isn't it?  I'm pretty much still in college, if that's the case.  Regardless, another year older another year wiser, I've decided to take this opportunity to explore the idea of birthday suits.  Don't worry, despite my title, I'm not going to post photos of myself or anyone else in a birthday suit, this is a fashion blog after all, not a nudist blog.

If you think about it, birthday suit implies clothed rather than the naked assumption most make with the term.  It does feel a little indulgent to just talk clothes, but it is my party & I can talk clothes if I want to.  I am going to point out the obvious here & say that even the fashion aloof still wear clothes everyday (except for the nudists), so they must care about fashion whether they like it or not.  In fact it is one of the few hobbies that everyone, who wears clothes, has in common.  Not everyone plays golf or does needlepoint or makes model airplanes, but almost everyone shops for clothes whether it is something they enjoy, or not (except my husband, he is not allowed to pick his own clothes).  Even those who don't shop for themselves make a conscious decision what to put on their body each & every morning (yep, even my husband, but he has been very well trained).  So before we do anything else in the morning we are making a decision as to how we will present ourselves to the world before we even step foot outside of our bedroom.  In business, in dating, in anything really, we always talk about first impressions & how important they are.  Well, clothing plays a huge role in this no matter who you are, where you live, or what you do for living.  I've always said that fashion is an extension of who I am & that it is my lifeblood.  Well, guess what?  It is the same for you, whether you like it or not, although I'm assuming you do since you are reading a fashion blog.  So this whole first impression, extension of who you are, birthday suit philosophy, gives clothes & getting dressed in the morning a whole new meaning.   Yet we all know the feeling of standing in our real birthday suits in front of the closet door, scratching our head, saying "what do I wear today?"!!!

In fashion design school we were taught to seek inspiration from just about anything from graffiti to Renaissance art to nature to space to different eras.  Each collection we created came from a group of images we gathered & compiled to create a board which inspired our collection.  This board helped us design silhouettes, pick textures, fabrics, notions, & colors.  Just about anything that went into the line came from some small piece of inspiration found on that board.  This is essential to the design process for any designer who works on any line from Old Navy to Valentino.  Why can't we use this process to dress ourselves each morning?  Rather than trying to pick clothes that match or that "came" together (ie. they were shown in concert on the mannequin) perhaps try to pick clothes that reveal who you are & what message you want to give to the world that day.  Become your own walking inspiration board.  This paradigm shift may result in ensembles that resemble a 4 year old's first attempt at dressing themselves, & if so you may opt to mimic the mannequin that day, but there could be some surprising new combinations that come out of your own wardrobe.  

My Birthday challenge to you: try inspiring an outfit rather than matching it & you may just feel yourself walking into your day feeling inspired & chic!!!!  Love yourself & show it in your daily "birthday suit".  This is what inspired me today:

Now guess what I am wearing?  Or steal my Birthday inspiration board for your outfit mixing purposes.

Off to the lake with my Hubby, son, & puppy for some birthday boating fun!
XOXO

Stylishly yours,
DKG

PS-  I'll post the outfit tomorrow, just for fun!  It IS birthday month after all (I am a Leo)!