Pinteresting My Style

I have a board for style on pinterest like a lot of girls do.

In the rare moments that I take time to do some online window shopping, I’ll pin anything that catches my eye: a cute cut in a shirt or skirt, an outfit, a cute dress or a pretty color combination.

I don’t pin it because I actually plan on buying those particular items. Most of them are significantly beyond what I’m able or willing to pay for a single item of clothing. I don’t pin it because of the brand name on the tags, and I don’t worry if they are “in style”. Honestly, it is hard to keep up with the trends and I’m not always sure I even want to.

I just pin to help me discover more about my personal style.

I can’t think of a time that I felt confident that I knew exactly what “my style” is. I grew up on hand me downs and being particular about defining my personal style never was a priority. I was just grateful for the clothes that I was given. They helped fill my wardrobe during some tight times for my family.

I know what I don’t like: neon colors and shirts with baggy sleeves, for example. But defining the things I liked has always been very hard for me.

I’ve felt content that I know how to put together a color coordinated, not-too-shabby or frumpy outfit and figured that was about as much style as I could muster.

Then came the day when I was packing my wardrobe (for the fourth time in less than that many years) and realized that I was wearing more than some of the same clothes (literally) at 24 that I wore at 14. I felt suddenly tired of the “it’s clean and it matches” wardrobe that I owned. Right then, I knew I really did want to discover my personal style after all. I wanted to have a wardrobe that felt pretty and felt like me. But shopping was overwhelming, and spending a lot of money on clothing wasn’t an option. And besides, I just didn’t know what I really was looking for anyway.

Then I got an invite for pinterest in my email box.

When I discovered pinterest, I decided to do an experiment. I decided that window shopping was free, and pinning was so very easy to do. If I just pinned long enough, maybe eventually I could look back and find a common thread in my pins. Maybe I could use pinterest as a tool that would help me to discover a little more of what made a pretty wardrobe in my un-fashion oriented mind.

So I started pinning.

I’ve admired and I’ve pinned. I’ve repinned from others’ boards. I’ve ignored price tags and the colors I usually wear. I’ve let the seamestress in me imagine re-cuts and redesigns. But mostly I’ve just pinned the things that I thought were pretty, no second guesses.

I took a look over my board this week as a whole for the first time in quite a while. I think my experiment is working!

I’m starting to see a pattern.

Not everything in my board is practical. And it is a rather small slice into my style preferences that are probably still waiting to be disclovered. But pinterest is helping me to define the things that I like when it comes to clothing. A neckline. The cut of the skirt. The patterns and textures of fabric. The layers.