These are two of my outfits from my dress log. The outfit on the left I wore on a day where it was 60 degrees out, so I was aggressively embracing it by wearing short overalls. The cardigan pictured later came off which led to a lot of unwelcome staring from weird men. It made me very aware of my agency as a young woman and how that plays into the male gaze, and that made me uncomfortable. On a lighter note, I put pink hair clips in the pocket of the overalls solely because they’re fun and add color. I liked the youthful element to the outfit. For my second outfit, I wore a Levi’s jacket, cardigan, jeans, and boots. I didn’t want to layer the cardigan and jacket but had to because it was cold. I wore the Paul Frank shirt because solely because it is funny. It was my first time wearing it and wanted to see what the response was going to be. I wore this to a birthday dinner. Everybody liked it because it reminded them of their childhood. Looking back, it is interesting to see how I subconsciously and consciously wore things that have youthful elements and remind me of my childhood. I think it is because it makes me happy. I think there are certain aspects of youth I like to play into for satire and irony, but also because it is something I can genuinely look back fondly on. I am also old enough to have nostalgia for certain things, which is weird, so I am trying to embrace it in a positive way even though nostalgia at 19 is unsettling.
