Sunday, February 1, 2015

Style Stories: Creative & Original!

We are so excited that we have officially 5 more days until our Sun Devils Wear Prada event on February 6th! Be sure to buy your tickets here and have a blast with your fellow stylish Sun Devils!! Check out this video about our event and be sure to invite your friends!

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Whenever we ask women to contribute their style story, we ask them not to teach, but to tell about their style journey! 

Among these awesome women, there's Kelsey O'meara, a Senior studying Nursing at ASU! She is considered a SOFT in the DCC category and you'll see in the following photos what colors really make her shine! Give her story a read- you may just relate to a few (or all) of the things she has to say about her style journey thus far!



1.How do you describe your current personal style? Who has influenced you the most in your clothing choices? 

Well, I’m definitely a girly girl. If it is pink and has some sparkles on it, I’m all over it! I love soft colors and soft materials. I love clothing items that flow. I’m a dancer, so something about the way clothes move is so aesthetically pleasing to me! I love bows, polka dots, lace trim, and pearls!! And I LOVE dresses. If we’re going with the personal style personalities we talk about in the club, I would probably classify myself as a creative original. Which means I like to add some creativity to my daily outfits. I love to put something together that’s unique! I usually never shop with an exact purpose, which I wouldn’t recommend because it can take forever, but because of that I usually just end up with a lot of different pieces that I like and then in the morning when I’m getting ready, I just throw things together. I love that feeling of putting an outfit together with the things already in my closet because it’s like painting a picture! Alright, we start with this color, add this color over here, some sparkle over there! And if I change one piece, we get an entirely new picture! It’s so fun! I would say that my mom has had such a huge influence on my clothing choices. She’s so naturally beautiful and just so classic. I used to shop with my mom a lot growing up and she was always there with an honest, yet encouraging opinion about the things I tried on. What I love about my mom’s style is that she wears so many different types of outfits and doesn’t just have to fit into one box. She will totally buy the shoes first before she has an outfit to match and I LOVE that! That’s an attitude I definitely incorporate into my shopping now.

2.When did your ‘style story’ begin? What was your age and circumstances when you began to shop for yourself and choose ‘styles for yourself? How did you personally feel about who you were at that stage of life? 

I think my style story started at a very young age. I have always loved clothes and dressing up. I had very strong opinions about clothes since I was little. I remember telling my mom when I was 5 that I absolutely would not wear jeans. They were uncomfortable and I wanted to wear leggings and dresses. As I grew up, not much of that changed! When I started picking out my own clothes, I still continued to be a girlie girl and I chose stores like Limited Too, where everything was pink and sparkly. I remember being self- conscious looking at myself in the dressing room mirror. I remember thinking that my friends were so tiny, so skinny, and after years of dancing, I had all this muscle, and I didn’t look like my friends. Looking back, I think I chose to shop at stores like Limited too because that was were all my friends shopped and I desperately wanted to fit in. The school hallway was like a runway and I wanted to look my best. I definitely tried hard to make myself look like everyone else. I didn’t want to stand out. Even though I loved style, it ended up becoming a battle of sizes in my mind because I wanted to be like all the other girls. 

3. What is your favorite personal feature and how do you ‘play it up’ in expressing your personal style? 

Ok, I really love my hair color. I’ve never dyed it and it’s all natural! I’ve had numerous hairstylist tell me to never dye it because they could never achieve the color through hair dye. So, I really like to do things with my hair! Little braids and twists are my specialty and I’m notorious for just chopping it off. I love what short hair does for a young woman! It has really increased my confidence because short hair isn’t the most popular way to wear your hair these days. For me, it was like taking away a security blanket, but I was thrilled with the results! I feel like it really highlights and draws attention to where I want people to look when I walk into a room: my face! I also really like my cheeks… so I really like blush. 



4. Talk about your experiences shopping in boutiques, Malls or on-line clothing ordering. 

I love shopping in boutiques because you find a lot of one of a kind items that you wouldn’t find anywhere else! They can be a little pricey though. I always head straight for the sale rack though. It’s just my thing. I really like going to the mall too, because you can cover a lot of ground! Since I’m a wanderer and a searcher when it comes to shopping, it’s like my playground! Some stores that I really love that you can usually find in malls are Forever 21, DownEast Basics, Old Navy, and American Eagle. I really also love a good department store. If you haven’t checked out the new, remodeled JCPenney, you definitely need to! I rarely every order anything online. It makes me nervous. I like to try things on before I buy them. 

5. What are one or two items that are hardest for you to shop for, and why do you think that? 

The absolute hardest thing for me to shop for is boots. I’m just going to be real. I have really muscular calves and trying to shove them into boots is probably one of the most frustrating experiences. I can almost never find ones that will fit not only my calves, but a layer of denim as well. For a while, my muscular legs were probably the biggest insecurity I had. I just wanted skinny little legs that would fit into boots and into jeans. Did I mention finding skinny jeans is almost impossible as well? But after hating my legs for so long, I had to take a very realistic inventory. I couldn’t take back all the years that I danced, and I wouldn’t want to! I also couldn’t change my genetics. Both of my parents have muscular calves. I was destined for it. These legs are staying with me so it’s just time to get more creative in the search for boots!  



6. What do you LOVE to shop for? Name a few of your favorite items? 

I love shopping for jewelry and hair accessories! They are so much fun! I feel like accessories add so much to your outfits and speak volumes about your personal style! Buy some scarves, some pearl earrings, and headband!! You can’t have a bad day with those kinds of purchases! I also love shopping for dresses! They just make me so happy and I get so excited about thinking about the first place I’m going to debut a new one! Such a blast! 

7. What do you DISLIKE the most to shop for? Name a few of your least liked items? 

I really don’t like shopping for something specific. Say, I really need a purple shirt for an event. Guess what? I will never find a purple shirt. When I have to be specific, I feel like my creativity is stifled or the store employees just hid all the purple shirts that day. It’s just not fun. I’m also not the biggest fan of pant shopping. I’m short, so they just never fit right. 

8. When you shop for clothing, how do you feel about your body? What do you think is the most challenging part of your body to dress and why? 

I definitely think the lower half of my body is the most difficult part to dress. Short, muscular legs are just the perfect storm for nothing to fit. Pants are too long, too tight, too baggy, too… pretty much anything but perfect! I usually have to hem or roll pants in order for them to fit. There are days I feel great about my body. There are days I also feel awful about my body. I use to beat myself up in my mind when I would look at myself in a mirror. I would point out all the flaws and then just stare at them, wishing they would go away, wishing that things could be different. Over the years though, I’ve realized something. Being a nursing major, I know how important the body is. I know how intricate and incredible the body is. I know that if you have your health and your body is going, you’ve got everything. Our bodies are seriously so amazing and we’ve got to start treating them like that. Now, when I look at myself in a mirror, I think “Be nice”. Most of the crazy, little details that I hate about my body are never going to change and I’m starting to become ok with that. So even on the days when I’m standing in the dressing room trying on item after item and nothings working, I’ve still got to be nice to myself!


Thank you so much for sharing your style story with us, Kelsey. You're absolutely right- we have to be nice to ourselves and our bodies to really be confident with our own style and it'll shine through!

A BIG thank you goes out to Matt Le Photography for the amazing photos, Francesca's for the fabulous outfits, and Dana Park!

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