My Style Story

The following is what I submitted as my style story for a book Stacy London is writing about style. Her Facebook page asked people to submit a picture and story for the chance to be a model in the book. People of all ages and sizes were encouraged to write in, so I figured why not. I did want to be a model when I was a kid, so why not take the chance now?

Here are the two pictures I submitted with my story:

My head to toe "now" picture.

My head to toe "then" picture.

The picture of me in the black outfit is how I look now with a 25 pound weight loss. The picture of me in the jeans and sweater by an apple tree is how I use to look at a healthy weight. My style story has a lot to do with my body type and my weight throughout the years. I have been every size under the sun from a size 9 in juniors to a size 18 in misses. I have worn size extra small to size extra large shirts. I have participated in many fashion trends from sporty to classic to rocker. Fashion has been a joy in my life when I get to use my creativity, and fashion has been really frustrating when I gained weight and nothing looked good anymore. I’m only twenty-seven, and I can say I’ve experienced a lot in the way of fashion for my age.

I’ll begin my fashion story with my body type. My body type has been harder to dress than the average, because my top and bottom halves are basically different sizes. I am curvy with my top half being on the smaller side and the bottom half on the bigger side. Tops are hard to fit, because they are often too big in the shoulder, neck, or sleeves. Pants are hard to fit, because I have a small waist and bigger hips and thighs. This results in having to buy bigger pants with a waist that is too big or gaping in the back. My mom sewed most of my prom dresses and made them into two parts to deal with this issue.

Another part of my fashion story is how my weight has changed throughout the years from one extreme to another. I started out my adult life weighing around 120 pounds. On my 5’6” frame, it looked great. During high school and college when I varied between 120-135 pounds, fashion was fun. I could buy just about any piece of clothing and make it work. Fashion became a chore when I had to try hard to find something that looked okay on my body with the weight I gained. When I reached my all time high of 220 pounds, I gave up on fashion. I just bought anything cheap off of the clearance rack to get by. I knew I didn’t want to stay at this weight, so I gave up on caring.

The weight gain and giving up on fashion worked in a vicious cycle of negativity. I kept all my clothes for all the sizes I had been in the past, because I wanted to lose weight and fit in them again. A few years ago, I gave up on this and sold most of the clothes. I had enough clothes to wardrobe at least ten people. When your clothes don’t reflect who you are and don’t fit all that well, it makes you feel worse about yourself. I was a stress eater, so this fueled the fire to eat more unhealthy food. This cycle has been broken, but I was stuck there for a long time.

Right now I’m in a positive place with my body type and weight loss. I like that I have a curvy body. When I look back on pictures of myself at a healthy weight, I can’t wait to be that person again. I know I have a long journey ahead of me, because I need to lose at least 60 more pounds. I have been eating healthy food in small portions throughout the day and getting exercise in through adding extra activities. The thing that has really helped me to lose weight for good this time is blogging about my food, exercise, and daily life.

What I would like to learn is how to dress myself as I am going through this weight loss journey. I want to look good at every step of the way. When I enjoy my clothes and I feel good in them, it inspires me to work harder on my weight loss. Wearing frumpy, good enough to get by clothes does the opposite. I would also like help with my professional wardrobe. I want clothes that say I'm the authority figure, but I'm still feminine, stylish, creative, and approachable. I would really like for fashion to be a fun way to show my creative side and express myself again no matter what the weight or size.