Get out of the image: Girls on how the change of style made them happier

About the search for "personal style" Innumerable books and articles have been written, and their authors vigorously offer universal recipes that supposedly can save us from unnecessary stylistic experiments and find ourselves. What are the stereotypes that you can not mix in one image a few prints, or that the "little black dress" - every woman's Masthev?

We are sure that it is a bad idea to customize readers to the mythical standard, our style may change, maturing with us, and experiments are normal. We ask different women how they try on different images - from a complete transition to retro to black refusal - and whether it helped them to achieve harmony with themselves and with the outside world.

Text: Anna Aristova

I believe that in order to make the dream a reality and really change, you need to have great courage. Once I just woke up and realized that I wanted to dress in retro every day - just like the girls I liked at the time, like Louise Ebel and Idda van Munster. I decided to take a chance - so the change began.

The most difficult step for me was the financial cost, and as for the negative reaction of others - I try not to notice it, although it still feels. For example, the other day my friends and I were at Sotheby's at the exhibition of the Pierre Berger collection, and my friend noticed that many women present there looked at me with disdain. I notice this tendency not for the first time: compliments for me are mostly made by older women and men, and peers are very rare.

At first I really paid attention to the reaction of people around me, it worried me what they would say and think about me. After a year and a half after the "change of image" I almost do not care. I almost stopped noticing that they were looking at me, whispering, and now I feel more relaxed about it.

I used to have no style, I was afraid of self-expression - today I finally feel myself in harmony with myself, and not only in retro clothing, but also when I go out in a sweatshirt with pants and no makeup. It doesn't bother me anymore - it even gives me confidence.

Daria Nelson

photographer and model

She began to wear things in retro style

I believe that clothes and makeup work “from the outside to the inside” and vice versa: we express ourselves, even if our message is that we don’t care what we are wearing. This summer, I changed skirts, high heels and tight turtlenecks to the ideal normcore for me - and I think that my sense of self has changed for the better, including due to changes in the regular wardrobe.

For me, among other things, clothing has always been a means of building my own identity, with which I have some difficulties. Since childhood, I did not feel “pretty girl”: in the family and at school I was quite frankly informed that I was ugly, and for many years my main goal was the need to be beautiful by all means. I, with the zeal of a maniac, removed the first dark hairs from all over my body, I learned how to dye, wear heels and dresses and lost weight infinitely. Of course, I didn’t get any better: I still remained a girl who doesn’t fit into the conventional notions of beauty, in the mirror I saw a man who tries desperately, but can’t reach the ideal.

I could not leave the house for weeks, because it seemed to me that I was the ugliest girl on the planet and it was better to sit quietly and not to be dishonored. Everything was complicated by a series of unsuccessful, to put it mildly, romantic relationships. I chose boyfriends with the tendencies of exemplary abuser, who considered it their duty to tell you what was wrong with my hair and clothes - and I so wanted to like them! Both believed that I needed to withstand a certain languorous image of a woman in vintage dresses with a tight waist. And he and the other praised me when I wore hated shirt dresses, in which I was bored and uncomfortable, and scolded for my beloved, cozy hoodie and sneakers: "Are you twelve years old?" And I worked a lot, including on the film sets sucking up all moral forces, I was forced to solve big problems in my life - well, the “lady” did not feel at all, which I tried to do, I really am.

Margarita Virova

journalist, editor Wonderzine

Replaced skirts and high heels for "tourist chic"

In general, it was a nightmare, I still associate shirt dresses with many years of depression — I distributed everything to my friends and took them to a charity shop and have absolutely no regrets. I always liked to go to raves, last winter I had new friends with whom I began to attend techno-parties more often - and the hours of frenzy on the dance floor imply comfortable and uncluttered clothes, which I always secretly liked, and belt bags, from which I without a mind (oh my God, you can live with free hands! Why did nobody tell me before?).

At the beginning of summer, the last boyfriend, an asshole, went overboard, and friends began to notice more often that black bags of different styles go very well to me. Thanks for the support! I began to wear sneakers with great pleasure, having forgotten about the complexes due to their small stature, and bought and bartered things that belong to the category of an aggressive streetwear. And finally felt like myself. I finally realized the dramatic change when our colleague wrote material on tourist chic - I realized that I really want to look like Shia Labaf, and not just dress in comfortable clothes because of laziness (although this too).

The gender style is much closer to me, simply because now I think that women's gender identity lost somewhere on the winding road of life is not at all important, and not even in fifth place in the top of things through which I define myself. My way of life outside the office is quite active: I meet with friends, travel, including spontaneously, do not always know what I will do in the evening - so first of all I choose convenience. I didn’t throw out all the skirts, heels and fur coats - I just combine them with sports and casual clothes more relaxed and free. I have become less and less likely to try to look at myself with a stranger (read: masculine) look, and finally recognize myself in the mirror - it turns out that such trifles are enough to feel a little happier.

The impetus for the change of style for me was the need to fit the entire wardrobe in one suitcase: four years ago I entered the magistracy in Spain and my life was transferred to ten square meters of the hostel. My reference book was “The Art of Living Simply” by Dominic Loro, and I began to mercilessly throw out things that could not be combined with each other.

Then I chose for myself three categories of selection of new items of clothing: the material, the technological features of sewing and the color of the product - when your wardrobe narrows to ten things, it becomes extremely important what material they consist of, how well they sit and how they work together with everything else. In the first two categories, the entire mass market was cut off - I knew that I would choose things to wear for years.

It took me a lot of time to select for myself brands and designers for which I was interested to follow and whose things I would be ready to buy for any money. The list was small: Y-3, Comme des Garçons and MM6 Maison Margiela. My main principle has become: less is better (and more expensive). In addition, colored things disappeared from my wardrobe - they no longer correspond to the inner world, reflect reality and simply began to look "cheap" against the background of new white shirts and black pants.

Now I am still looking for the right balance of things: I sew something, buy expensive and technological clothes, and sometimes a simple and functional base. And although it seems to me that the result of the decisions made by me four years ago will be settled only by my thirty years, now I feel confident that I am wearing. Clothing has become my way of communicating with the world, and I don’t feel uncomfortable by dressing “not for the occasion”.

Lyudmila Andreeva

designer

It became to acquire only those things that are combined with each other

At the end of March, I unexpectedly packed my suitcase for myself and left for San Francisco, and it remained so. The suitcase had exactly 23 kilograms of the most useful Moscow things: minimalistic, warm and safe - a good selection was preserved in the Wonderzine shooting from 2016. I figured out that only two things survived from that shoot: a white sweatshirt and a green cap, and even that is more for nostalgic reasons. Otherwise, my wardrobe has completely changed and consists mainly of things that I used to be shy or afraid to wear.

I first wondered if everything was alright with me when I saw the leopard beret, put it on the store immediately and did not take it off for the next two weeks. In addition to the beret, in the closet were found pink corduroy pants, a crop top with multi-colored pom-poms, glasses with hearts, two hats, Hawaiian shirts, a fruit salad necklace, white sectarian bow, floral dresses and sandals with socks. When for the first time in several months I felt in the mood to wear something black, there was nothing at all in the closet, and I realized that there was no way back.

For me, this change was quite natural: absolutely everything in my life has changed, so why would I continue to dress as before? There were, however, objective reasons. I learned to live in a city where the weather changes dramatically from morning to evening, but repeats day after day; in a city where there is no snow (and from May to October - and rain), where the temperature rarely drops below ten degrees, and the ability to think through the change of attire during the day is more important than the presence of parks and boots with fur. Due to the fact that San Francisco is a very expensive city, I began to spend much less money on clothes, but I bought more interesting things in second-hand shops like Goodwill, instagram stores and cheap local brands like Everlane or Reformation. The fact that mail and delivery services work here is clearer and simpler than in Russia, and I began to buy more things on the Internet without fearing that something will be lost or will not reach it.

The main change, however, concerned my inner feelings. In Moscow, I didn’t want to look strange because of the risk of slanting glances or giggles from outside, in San Francisco, people do not walk in suits and heels, but in leggings for yoga and Patagonia jackets, and the price of a mistake seems to me much less. This is partly why I stopped worrying about how “profitable” one or another thing is sitting on me and whether it is (I dread to think) emphasize an extra roll on my stomach, and therefore I began to allow myself a lot more colors, styles and materials. Having gone from all fashionable people and all the rules of good form, I began to dress up like local elderly hippies from the gender studies department, Alexis from Dynasty and Polumna from Harry Potter and, frankly, was never happier.

Rita Popova

Replika product manager

Moved from minimalist wardrobe to leopard print and pink corduroy

I dress in swaps - I first heard about them after Sasha Boyarskaya's fasting about the swap from Alice Taiga. The idea of this way of updating my wardrobe turned out to be close to me - in the end, I not only gave away a lot of clothes and got a lot of cool things, but also had a great time. So I practically replaced my wardrobe and today I buy only basic items in shops, like sneakers and jeans.

Sometimes I find something on swaps that I would never put on - but I decide on a fitting and as a result I look very cool. In general, it is very pleasant to be part of the swap culture - it is no less pleasant to get acquainted with the interesting and intelligent women participating in them, and to learn the stories behind their things. I am pleased to present clothes that are bored in the closet, a new life, and the idea of eco-friendly and economical consumption after that affected not only my style, but also my lifestyle. Now, I very rarely use plastic bags, I share garbage and try to save water, and I donate clothes not only for swaps, but also for recycling.

Maria Kopyova

designer mrs pomeranz

Revised the attitude to consumption and now puts on swaps

Everyone had their own way on their way to their own style. Mine began with a love of rock music, Converse sneakers, jeans of all shapes, shades and cut, and multi-colored (rather motley!) T-shirts and jumpers. When I entered the department of international journalism, I decided that it was time to be serious and a bit more feminine. In other words, I put myself in the framework of rigid rules: wear jeans only once a week (and only flares and heels from seven centimeters), and wear skirts and dresses (sometimes with sneakers, like Sarah Andelman from Colette). The same was true of hairstyles: it was from those times that I wear only loose hair, collecting them in the tail, only if I play tennis or volleyball. During the four years of my studies, I mastered not only a couple of foreign languages and learned the basics of journalism from A to B, but also discovered dozens of interesting and cool alternatives to commonplace jeans.

Ten years later, my style "matured." Why? Probably because I became more confident and trite to learn to be myself. I found not only my vocation, but also the lifestyle that I like: I have been living in Paris for five years and writing fashion chronicles from the scene. Now I can again be met more often in jeans and trousers than in skirts and dresses. I experiment less and know clearly what is going on for me. For example, skinny jeans (I wear white, black and blue): I like to combine them with plain T-shirts in the summer, with turtlenecks in the winter and with shirts and men's shirts all year round. I still wear my flared jeans - the ones bought in the first year; stylish French women at different fashion events dare to ask each time where to buy them. I choose dresses and skirts according to my mood and still wear exclusively loose hair, carelessly styled, like those of Carolyn de Maigret.