Hello! I've been thinking lately about self expression. The way people express themselves is something that has always intrigued me. So many times I've seen people I've thought to be shy or almost anti-social come alive when they talk about something they're passionate about. It's the most wonderful thing to see their eyes light up and their voices become animated. I've found my self expression changing too. I've become more open to unusual things and part of this has been expressing myself through clothes. I've never felt comfortable in heels or enjoyed wearing lots of makeup, it's something that isn't me, despite so many beautiful people pulling these things off brilliantly. In the last while I've found myself buying more unusual things and enjoying clothes shopping a lot more. So I've decided to share with you my collection of vintage and 90's inspired clothing. One of my best friends Megan Walsh kindly offered to model them for me and I think she looks AMAZING. I'll link to the places where I bought each item if you're interested! I experimented with the outfit photos because I don't like composition and the positioning to be perfect in every photo, I hope you liked this little experiment. Let me know! A lot of the items I bought were from vintage shops and depop so I am not sure if you could find something exactly like what Megan is wearing, I'll link to some places where you can find some of the key items of clothing below each outfit.
The first outfit is so simple and really casual. I put together the outfit with the mindset of making the deep v blouse the focus. The white bralette allowed the blouse to stand out and also add an edgier look to outfit. It's not the easiest thing to bare your stomach. A younger me would not have worn a bright green shirt with blue, red and white stripes, but now I love it. Patterened shirts are worn by a lot of the people that go out to the same places as me and I really like seeing the patterns. The little horn choker adds some detail to a bare neckline and I would wear this to a festival or even to an indoor rave. Mom jeans would look fantastic with this deep v blouse as well as the skinny jeans Megan wears in the photos. The material of the blouse is really light and the first time I wore it out and about it kept me cool and I was flattered by a few compliments.
CHOKER - Hazel's Nuts About Vintage
DEEP V BLOUSE - Nine Crows
BRALET - Depop
Personally this takes me back to the 90's. I love the combination of black and white in clothing, especially this white crop top and black dress combination. It looks really stylish and again, it's such a simple outfit, with two staple pieces. White t-shirts like these are helpful because if you have multicoloured trousers on the bottom half e.g. harem pants, patterned jeans and trouseres, there won't be a clash of patterns. The black dress is an item of clothing everyone should own, you can wear it again and again with different details and it can be worn in a unique outfit every time. This dress of mine is years and years old but it still is worn on a regular basis. I decided to add the beige creepers into the outfit to provide a little pop of colour and I think creepers add that little bit to the outfit. Creepers are back into fashion, everyone seems to be wearing them. You can get pairs for really cheap in the likes of New Look and even Penneys if you take a look around you'll find them. This look could be something you can wear during the day, if you're out at night and also of course a festival. Hopefully the little extra sole prevents you getting destroyed in a muddy field!
T-SHIRT - Topshop
DRESS - Forever 21
CREEPERS - Public Desire
I looooove stripes. Especially black and white stripes, I love the Breton white and black, it really adds to an outfit. This is a long sleeve cop top and I tend to wear it with high waisted jeans, or in this case a black skirt. This button up skater skirt is something I've been seeing girls in Europe wearing a lot. At the time of buying this skirt, I was living in Belgium, surrounded by beautiful, stylish Belgian girls. Áine, a friend of mine from college knew I was looking for this particular type of skirt and found one for me, so I was delighted. I couldn't find the exact one on the H&M website so I linked to a Google page with shops selling these skirts. I would wear this outfit with creepers again or even a pair of boots i.e. Doc Martens or whatever you own yourself. As you can see again, I am not someone who wears complicated outfits.
LONG SLEEVE STRIPED TOP - Penneys
BLACK BUTTONED SKATER SKIRT - H&M (Belgium)
The oversized denim jacket in this outfit is my pride and joy. I wear it all the time and I think it's one of the coolest items of clothing I own. It's the staple part in this particular outfit. You can find these type of jackets in a lot of vintage shops around Ireland, including Limerick, Waterford and Dublin etc. I recommend using the app Depop to find people selling on their vintage clothes for a reasonable price. I do think that sometimes having a strongly contrasting colour in pants would make denim on denim look even better. Luckily here, Megan's jeans were a paler colour and made for an interesting contrast. I would suggest wearing black jeans with this outfit to make the denim stand out! I adore this oversized trend that seems to be everywhere right now.
OVER SIZED DENIM JACKET - Tola Vintage
BRALET - Depop
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I hope you enjoyed this type of post from me, if so, there's a part two of this post due to be posted in the coming weeks. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me via any of my social medias, linked on the side and top of this blog. Thank you so much to Megan for modelling these clothes for me and dealing with me trying to figure out what strange poses and angles I needed for the photos. Also thank you to Joanne O'Brien who helped me figure out the best outfits for this blog post and for giving me brilliant advice throughout the photographing process!
