Metal Head Hippie Chick

My personal style has evolved over the years but there are a few qualities that have always been consistent: I am a jeans, t-shirt, and flat sole shoe person. When I was very little I dressed with hand-me-downs, boys clothes from Old Navy, and other various graphic tees. During middle school I went through the classic emo/scene phase. Then through the majority of high school my style was old band t-shirts, flannels, with a dash of other more "beachy" elements (I'm a marine science major and used to wear seashells in my hair). It was an odd mash of everything I like. Today I wear mostly monochromatic items, graphic t-shirts, and platform shoes. If we are really digging into why, it can easily be seen that I started wearing black jeans nearly exclusively (only not wearing them for outdoor manual labor jobs) since someone I was very close to passed away three years ago. The graphic tees are just what I'm most comfortable with because it's what I've always been drawn to. I don't really speak up a lot so I can tell the outside world something by a print on my shirt. The platform shoes are just really comfortable in all honesty, that and I love punk music and that scene where styles like "creepers" came out of... as well as fulfilling my childhood dream of being a Spice Girl.

I don't think I necessarily have a specific style per se, but I tend to dress in a more "alternative" way. I don't think that it translates into other areas of my life though as one would imagine. There are certainly elements of it in for example my home decor because it is a part of how I express myself but the walls are not painted black at all. The way I like explaining it is that how I dress is how I allow others to perceive me, and how I live/decorate is how I perceive myself. My rooms are almost like the inside of my head, if that makes any sense. Both my room at home and my dorm room have mainly blues, muted greens, and grays around. I have a lot of books, nerdy collectables, and items I've collected from my travels (including rocks, sea shells, vials of sand, and a couple of leis). 

My relationship with my clothes is as I've previously stated: how I allow others to perceive me. I wear things that express my interests when I feel I have no voice to express it myself. In a more tangible sense I was always taught how to care for my clothes with properly washing them and mending them. My family doesn't come from money so I only ever really got clothes for my birthday, back to school, and Christmas. I remember having a favorite pair of jeans in elementary school that started to wear down and get a huge rip in the knee. I was so upset and ended up getting a tank top that I was starting to grow out of, cutting out the graphic, and teaching myself to sew it onto the jeans to patch up the hole. My mom was impressed and then helped me with a few areas that I didn't sew all that well. I continued wearing those until I couldn't fit into them anymore. It was fun for me to DIY my clothes and is something that I continue to do and enjoy today. 

Shirt I made for my Halloween costume as Captain America.
Patches I made for my "cap" and my boyfriend's Tony Stark shirt.
(Shield, which is just out of frame, is made by my father)

Going through these questions from Women in Clothes made me think about all the things I've written about. While it didn't necessarily affect my perspective, it gave me a more solid one. Because I've never really thought about it before. When I was trying to think of a title, I was going through my Pintrest boards for clothes and homewears and that was my bio; I thought it was fitting considering my love for nature and hardcore music.

Cost Break Down: New York Fashion Week

All fashion shows range in price depending on location, size, designers, and the models walking. Even when focusing on just one, like New York Fashion Week, it is still difficult to say the exact prices. Many of the people involved don't talk about it: you wouldn't want to ruin the illusion fashion weeks tend to create. The website "Fashionista" pulled together all the data from various insiders for an article. What they discovered was that a venue can range anywhere from $15,000 to $60,000. The $60,000 space is the infamous Lincoln Center, but still venues could be less if a designer choses to have either a more "low key" showing or somewhere not as renown.  While some designers style their items on the models themselves or with their employees, others pay stylists to do it for them. Stylists can also range in prices depending on how much demand there is for them. Some ask for $8,000 a day (usually working for 10-14 days) while others can get $10,000 for their entire time working. 

Models, probably one of the most important parts of a runway show, are another expense brands have to consider. As with everything else, models pay ranges depending on status and their agency. Some models can get paid in clothes, or from $150-$1,000. So a brand might steer away from big names to hire smaller or even independent models to save some money. For hair and makeup brands are usually sponsored for, so instead of paying $5,000-$15,000 they are receiving that much. Saving that much doesn't get a brand that far though because they also like to populate their front row with big name celebrities. According to fashionista, "The amount a celebrity can command depends on a mix of how famous they are, how much their photos how much their photos get picked up, how good a fit that celebrity is for the brand, and whether or not the celebrity is attending other shows." Celebrities usually ask for around $15,000-$100,000 for an appearance.
Below is a breakdown of costs that fashionista assembled, they totaled everything out to: $200,000. But then they quickly added that some brands can spend at least $1,000,000 for a show.

#AerieREAL Showing Women as Themselves

Personally I don't really shop at the brand Aerie, but I do like the things that they sell. Aerie is a sub-brand of the larger brand American Eagle, which sells predominately denim, as well as other trendy items and basics. Aerie focuses on intimates and personal care products for women. The most recently Aerie has made their campaign #AerieREAL which is all about no retouching and loving your real, unique body. All the models have are in healthy shape, have cellulite, have stretch marks, etc. I love anything body positive so I think that this is a great that this huge company has this as their campaign. The way the images are portrayed are in a very fun and summery and has the vibe of wanted to confidently walk on a beach; Which is something a lot of women aren't comfortable with. They filmed video clips of each of their models for their website taking the "real" aspect a step further. Usually in ad campaigns the models seem inaccessible and just too different from who we are as the consumer. One of their models that helped to kick off the campaign is the actress Emma Roberts, known best for her tween movies and more recently the TV shows American Horror Story and Scream Queens. By using Emma Roberts they can gain more of an audience while also showing people that celebrities have the same "flaws" that we all have. 

“Partnering with Aerie was a natural fit for me because #AerieREAL is a message I personally identify with, particularly being in an industry that is quick to judge flaws,” says Emma Roberts. “I feel so honored to be part of a movement that reassures women that real doesn’t mean flawed – real is sexy, real is cool.”