what's an outfit that makes you feel like yourself?
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Not a Writers Club is a bi-weekly newsletter. Here you’ll find musings written by me (Celeste) along with writing prompts that you can try out yourself. If you’ve been looking for a sign to keep writing, this is it.
Yesterday I wore an outfit that I really liked myself in:
White denim pants from Uniqlo that I used to wear cuffed, but then cut with a pair of scissors last summer after seeing a lady at the plant store with white cutoff jeans and thinking it looked cute.
A black halter top from American Apparel that I’m pretty sure I bought on Depop a couple of summers ago because the new American Apparel stuff just doesn’t hit like it did in 2013. Let’s talk about it.
On top of that I wore a vintage gray crewneck sweater that says “New York” and has a drawing of the Manhattan skyline on it. You can tell it’s real vintage because it has the twin towers on it. I used to steal this crewneck out of my Mom’s closet and wear it to school when I was 16 because I loved it and I loved New York and that was my personality basically. One year we were opening Christmas gifts and the sweater was inside one of my boxes. I looked at my Mom who just said, “You better take care of it.”
For jewelry I wore my gold thin hoops and my citrine pendant necklace that I got on eBay. Citrine is my birthstone, which I always hated as a kid because I thought the color of citrine looked like dehydrated pee. Very dramatic of me.
I also wore my Outdoor Voices hat, which I also bought on Depop. It’s yellow, and says “Outdoor Voices” in cobalt blue on the front. It makes me feel very sporty, like I should wear it while on a run (which I did twice this week in case you were wondering.)
And then for shoes, get this, I wore Converse. Converse. Black ones. I literally had to excavate them from the back of my closet because I hadn’t worn them in so long. I’ve been wearing my Hokas religiously because they’re really great walking shoes and I get so many compliments on them. But I don’t know, yesterday just felt like a Converse day. It felt weird walking down the street. Like I was walking on nothing. It reminded me of when I used to wear Converse religiously in high school and my Dad told me if I didn’t wear some shoes with some arch support, they would make my feet flat. I guess you could say I’ve grown.
The bag was a no-brainer for this outfit. I just bought this really structured tote from L.L. Bean – you know the one– with my name embroidered on it. It’s the smallest size with short, forest green straps that are just a tad bit too small to go over my shoulder, but the perfect size for holding in one hand without making the tote drag on the floor. I find myself always holding it so that my name isn’t showing, which sort of defeats the purpose of getting your name embroidered on a bag. But I think that’s kind of a metaphor for the internal struggle I have between wanting to be seen and also wanting to be as low key as possible.
It was a perfect outfit for the day. Adam and I walked to the farmers market and browsed and then we grabbed Citi bikes and biked over to Muji, where I bought chopsticks for the hot pot dinner we had planned for the night. I was craving a matcha, so I grabbed one at a cafe nearby and Adam took a pic of me while we waited in line. I didn’t know how to pose so at the last minute I threw a thumbs up.
In the photo you can barely see my eyes because of the hat-double-mask-glasses combo, but I felt like I looked like myself. Adam said that my outfit reminded him of this influencer who I’m obsessed with. I won’t say who because that’s embarrassing, but if you know me well you could probably guess who it is. And I kind of love that.
Prompt: What’s an outfit that makes you feel like yourself? (And why, if you feel so inclined to say.) Post a pic of yourself wearing it on Instagram and use the hashtag #notawritersclub.
ICYMI ↩️
In the last newsletter I talked about some throat issues I was having. (It was tonsillitis, and yes, I’m okay. ❤️)
Required Reading 📚
This tweet that Leah sent me:
Quick Tip 📝
Wear what you want to wear. The first outfit that comes to mind when you’re getting dressed is usually the one that’s going to make you feel the best. Don’t think about it too much. Trust that you know yourself well enough.